The Hunt Canada Loves: Why Seal Clubbing Will Never Die
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It’s sealing season once again in Canada. This means that, once again, activists are out in strength to decry Canadians as baby-killers and, in some cases, ISIS. And on Tuesday, Canada’s strained relationship with India got just a bit worse when India banned the import of seal skins (although, for obvious reasons, they were never a major seal skin market).
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Email Addressor View more offersArticle contentBelow, a quick guide to the one of the world’s most embattled hunts. What’s true, what’s a myth and why Canadians will never, ever stop doing this.
Article contentArticle contentArticle content‘Subsistence’ exemptions for Inuit are meaningless Whether it’s the European Union or the International Fund for Animal Welfare, seal hunting opponents usually have a common mantra: They want to shut down the “commercial” hunt while preserving “subsistence” sealing for Inuit hunters. However, Inuit aren’t just eating seal, they also depend heavily on seal pelt sales and are hit hardest by bans and boycotts. “They’re still picturing little Eskimos in igloos with no need for money,” filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril said of seal hunting opponents in her pro-seal hunting documentary Angry Inuk. In 1983, the European Union banned the importation of seal pup products. Although Inuit did not hunt the products mentioned — and were even included in a special exemption — the ban nevertheless prompted a worldwide collapse in demand for seal products. Overnight, Arctic seal hunting revenues plummeted, nomadic hunters were forced to settle into fixed communities and the region’s already-high suicide rates became among the worst on the planet. “It was our Great Depression,” said Arnaquq-Baril. It also made the word “Greenpeace” a virtual swear word anywhere above the treeline.
Article contentArticle contentArticle contentStudents are skinning seals in the foyer this morning #sealfie pic.twitter.com/j7FyJf2nOE
— Paatsaali School (@paatsaali) January 25, 2018
… but most seals harvested in Canada still come from Newfoundland and Labrador Inuit correctly note that most of the world’s seal hunters are Inuk. But when it comes to sheer quantity of hunted seals, however, most of those are still coming out of Newfoundland and Labrador. Exact numbers are difficult to come by for the all-year Arctic hunt, but the Nunavut territorial government estimates that its hunters take 35,000 seals per year. In 2016, the Atlantic hunt took about 70,000 harp and grey seals, and as recently as 2006 that number has been as high as 355,000.
Article contentNobody is killing those adorable white baby seals This is, bar none, the most persistent and widespread myth about the Canadian seal hunt. Every year, anti-seal hunt literature is almost guaranteed to include images of white-coated infant harp seals. This is despite the fact that Canada has banned the killing of white-coated seals since 1987, and that the Inuit never killed white coats. Even if organizations don’t trade in images of white seals, they will still lean heavily on the term “baby seals.” “Each spring, the Canadian government authorizes fishermen to club or shoot to death hundreds of thousands of baby seals for their fur,” writes the Humane Society of the United States. This is a reference to the fact that the vast majority of harp seals killed are between one and 3.5 months old. However, some context might be in order. Those rotisserie chickens at the grocery store were likely alive for only 40 days. The average pack of bacon comes from a pig that was only on earth for four months.
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