Despite a vanishing market for seal fur and an international boycott of Canadian seafood that is costing the Canadian economy far more than the value of the sealing industry, the Canadian government decided to allow the commercial hunt of grey seals in Nova Scotia again this year.
In a violation of the province’s Wilderness Areas Protection Act, the slaughter began on Hay Island, a protected nature reserve. Last year’s Hay Island grey seal kill was one of the cruelest slaughters HSI has ever documented. Sealers herded seals into groups, then clubbed moulted pups just a few weeks of age with wooden bats and cut them open with box cutters just inches away from newborn pups and their mothers.
This year, it seemed briefly that the hunt might not go forward due to lack of demand for seal pelts. Then, hopes were dashed when 200 baby seals were taken after all.
Read Rebecca Aldworth’s thoughts, before and after the hunt began.