On March 15th, 2005, CANADA'S ANNUAL SEASON OF SLAUGHTERING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BABY HARP SEALS will begin again. The killing is not only wasteful, unneccessary, and unbelievably cruel and brutal (many of the animals are skinned alive in an effort to save time), but makes no logical sense by any definition…

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MEAT: Only small amounts of the seal's meat is processed and utilized in any manner. (DFO regulations state that "either the pelt OR the meat must be used for each animal.") Most of this is used for the pet food trade or fur farms. It is rarely eaten by non indigenous peoples for food due to its relatively heavy fatty and oily composition.

IT'S NOT ABOUT "SUBSISTENCE": Few natives or indigenous peoples are involved in killing the seals off the coastlines of Newfoundland, Quebec, and Labrador. This is a COMMERCIAL hunt, fully subsidized by the Canadian government.

IT'S NOT ABOUT SEAL OIL PRODUCTS: In fact, buyers from around the world continue to shun most seal oil products produced by pro-hunt businesses. This makes perfect sense as many of these oil products are produced for the vanity and health markets and it seems most consumers can't get excited about using a face cream or "healthy" supplement made from horrifically murdered baby seals.

AND IT'S ONLY PARTIALLY ABOUT THEIR PELTS: Although the past has always seen fluctuations in the world demand for seal pelts, today's modern times indicate there is a CURRENT GROWING MARKET for baby harp and hooded seal pelts. Most of the pelts are imported by Norway, Greenland, Germany, China, Finland, and Denmark and other countries that choose to continue to import the pelts regardless of any bans or public opposition.

Although efforts are growing to increase this market, at the present time, Canada's GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES are still a large reason behind the sealing industries' ability to continue to kill the seals. So, although it is a fact that certain individuals and corporations do profit from harp seal pelts, it is also true that the pelt business is NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE as the actual market value of the pelts (when factored in with all the expenses that go along with hunting seals), is not sustainable on its own. (Thousands upon thousands of pelts are stockpiled in warehouses throughout eastern Canada and Norway- simply waiting for market demand to rise.)

Also, it's interesting to note that although it's technically "ILLEGAL" to kill the babies while they are in their "whitecoat stage"- this DFO rule is routinely broken along with many other ones which claim to regulate the hunt.

SO WHY DOES THE HUNT CONTINUE? In a simplistic word, the answer is politics! After years of OVERFISHING, Canada's government is now using the harp seals as a SCAPEGOAT and blaming them for failure of the cod fishery to recover. They do this with an extensive and continuous PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN against the seals (at taxpayers expense), despite the fact that scientists not on the government payroll have stated that no such conclusion is possible given the scientific evidence.