point missed by oh, a mile

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http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0838383220080309

 

Canada says seals to be killed more humanely Sun Mar 9, 2008 9:45am EDT

 

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's government, heavily criticized for allowing

hunters

to shoot and club to death hundreds of thousands of seals each year, says it is

imposing new rules to ensure the animals are killed more humanely.

Pictures of burly men smashing the skulls of young seals on ice floes off

Canada's

Atlantic coast are a huge black eye for Ottawa and a boon for animal rights

campaigners,

who say the seals often suffer a prolonged, painful death.

Hunters are usually permitted to kill around 325,000 harp seals in March and

April.

The furs are made into coats and other clothes and there is a growing market for

seal oil, which is high in omega 3 fatty acids.

Although hunters are obliged to ensure the seals die quickly, officials

acknowledge

this does not always happen.

From now on, hunters will have to follow a three-step process recommended by an

independent panel of veterinarians. After clubbing or shooting the seal, a

hunter

must check its eyes to ensure it is dead and if not, the animal's main arteries

have to be cut.

" They (the vets) think the three-step process provides more certainty around

humaneness ... We do really need to move ahead with this, " said Kevin Stringer

of the federal department of fisheries and oceans.

Current regulations say that if the hunter discovers a seal is still alive, he

has to hit it again on the head, an act that in some cases might not ensure

death.

Cutting the animal's arteries leaves nothing up to chance.

" One (method) ensures unconsciousness and one ensures a quick death, "

Stringer told Reuters.

Official estimates say there are just under 6 million harp seals off Canada's

east coast, almost triple the number in the 1970s. This does not dissuade

protesters

-- supported by rock star Paul McCartney and former French actress Brigitte

Bardot

-- who say killing the animals is barbaric.

Animal rights protesters said the new rules would make little difference since

there were not enough inspectors monitoring the hunt and conditions could be

difficult.

" You often have very broken-up ice, people shooting at seals from distances

of 50 or 60 meters (yards), " said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of

the United States.

" There is a huge time lag between actually striking the animal with the bullet

and then getting the boat into place to test for unconsciousness, " she told

Reuters.

Protest groups in the United States have tried in the past to persuade major

restaurant

chains to boycott Canadian seafood until the seal hunt is scrapped. They are

also

confident the European Union will ban the import of seal furs and oil.

One major hunters' group, no friend of the activists, said it backed the new

three-step process.

" It's very good. As for the question of suffering, it really ensures the

animal is dead and people won't be able to question that any more, " said

Jean-Claude Lapierre, head of the seal hunters' association on the Magdalen

Islands off Quebec.

Ottawa is due to announce by the end of March how many seals can be killed this

year. Last year's quota was cut to 270,000 from 335,000 in 2006 because of poor

ice but both Aldworth and Lapierre said conditions this year were better.

 

 

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Confucius