Seals and the Seal Hunt in the News in 2009
Whitecoat harp seal pup (c)IFAW |
The 2009 seal hunt quota was 280,000 harp seals. That means the Canadian government gave sealers the go ahead to slaughter almost 300,000 seal pups.
Thanks to the threat of a ban on seal imports by the European Union - a threat that was realized - prices offered for seal pelts tanked; and many sealers stayed home.
The death toll was, consequently, much lower than Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans allowed. About 60,000 defenseless harp seal pups were still killed - 60,000 too many.
Articles can be found on the pages below:
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