AR-News: (UK) Protesters target Canada seal cull

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

THE largest single seal hunt in half a century begins in Canada today in the 
face of protests from animal rights activists. 

The government is allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed this year, 
many of them in a 36-hour mass cull. 

Animal rights groups are hoping to sway international opinion against the 
hunt, but Canadian officials say it is now both humane and necessary. 

The seal hunts in Newfoundland and Labrador were phased out 25 years ago as 
brutal images of men clubbing infant seals horrified the world. 

The United States banned imports of seal products in 1972 and the EU followed 
suit a decade later with a ban on white pelt imports, taken from the youngest 
babies. 

As a result, the Canadian government reduced quotas for seal hunting to as 
low as 15,000 annually - mainly for meat and local handicraft. 

Last year, Canada increased the quotas again, allowing a million seals to be 
killed over the next three years. 

It is now being conducted under tighter regulations and most seals are now 
shot, not clubbed, but the number of animals expected to be taken this year will 
be the highest in decades. 

At the weekend, Canadian Natural Resources Minister John Efford said many 
claims made overseas about the hunt were simply wrong. 

He says the hunt was more humane than ever while the seal population is 
exploding and commercial fish stocks in the region are vanishing. 




full story:

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=413712004 
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