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Canada's TAC increased for Hunting Harp
Seals
16 March 2006
by Anai Rhoads
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AnaiRhoads.org - Unphased by
international outrage and protests, Canada plows ahead with its annual
seal hunt.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans' Minister Loyola Hearn,
who represents the Newfoundland and Labrador riding of St. John's
South-Mount Pearl, released a one-year Total Allowable Catch (TAC) that
will allow 335,000 seals to be killed this year, up by 5,000 from last
year. This TAC will be the highest quota for killing harp seal pups in
its history.
"Unbelievable; with all of the risks already facing the harp seal
population this year, the federal government has chosen to issue such a
ridiculously high quota and allow this unsustainable, unacceptably
cruel, so-called hunt to continue," said Olivier Bonnet, IFAW Canada
director.
Despite official details on how the harp seals are hunted (over 90
percent are shot, but some hunters still employ a hakapik to crush the
seal's skull) Hearn defends the hunt by saying, "The image of sealers
killing white-coated baby seal pups is a tempting one, one that the
anti-seal activists cultivate widely."
According to the most recent polls in Canada, 69 percent of its
citizens strongly oppose the annual seal hunt. Unfortunately, Canadians
are forced to pay for it through ongoing government subsidies, despite
opposition by 77 percent.
It is illegal to hunt a baby harp seal while it still has a white coat,
but images have been captured time and time again of hunters brutally
attacking seal pups as young as a day old.
Over a million harp seals and their pups have been slaughtered in the
last 3 hunting seasons in Canada.
©2006 Anai Rhoads. Reproduction must be authorised in writing
by author only. Altering, redistributing, or selling this material is
strictly prohibited.
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