Commercial seal hunting
and the Domino Effect
Failure to organize will see the efforts of millions of people across the globe were in vain
By Georges R. Dupras
April 18, 2024
In school, we were taught that if we did not study history, we were condemned to repeat it. Another Federal election is not far off and, already, two of our party leaders are making promises to attract voters in marginal ridings. Their comments on the commercial seal hunt ignore changing public attitudes and misrepresent the impact seals have on fisheries.
I’m referring to their promise to reinstate the long-fought commercial seal hunt off the east coast of Canada. Make no mistake, the heavily subsidized seal hunt goes on today but is dramatically reduced and with no obvious markets for a product no one wants.
… two of our party leaders are making promises to attract voters in marginal ridings. Their comments on the commercial seal hunt ignore changing public attitudes and misrepresent the impact seals have on fisheries.
I have long argued that the commercial seal hunt is “the” Domino animal protection issue here in Canada, as well as elsewhere. No other single animal-related practice has drawn more media attention and been the focus of more news articles, talk shows, House debates, a Royal Commission, demonstrations, boycotts, and even court cases than this infamous slaughter.
I believe that, if the Domino falls in our favour, the momentum will be with us. If the reverse occurs, all other animal exploitation issues will be that much harder to win due to loss of momentum.
A lifetime of effort and the hunts that never were
Thanks to the tenacity of Brian Davies and the initiatives of Stephen Best, the market for white coat pelts was dealt a serious blow by the European Economic Commission, which banned their import. The European Union further extended the ban in 2009. Though ongoing, the many who fought the seal hunt over the years can take solace in the knowledge that their efforts may have stopped other similar hunts from starting up. I’m thinking of a commercial hunt for caribou in the Labrador and Quebec regions (The George River Caribou herd boasted over one million head at that time).
Mr. Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, wants to lead the sealing communities back some 500 years while others seek more progressive goals. Mr. Trudeau, the beleaguered Prime Minister, has suggested the hunt, already the largest ongoing wildlife slaughter in the world, be expanded.
‘Though ongoing, the many who fought the seal hunt over the years can take solace in the knowledge that their efforts may have stopped other similar hunts from starting up.’
Animal rights inertia
If the commercial seal hunt is revived, our collective effort will be set back well beyond the last century. In Canada, we are still waiting for the first significant change in animal protection laws in over 100 years. If the seal slaughter is allowed to regain its former impetus, we risk losing what small gain we accomplished due to our collective inertia.
Youth aware and less intimidated
As the years have passed, we have witnessed an unprecedented growth in the interest in environmentalism. Today’s youth are keenly aware of wildlife issues and are not plagued by authoritarian intimidation. They are quick to challenge science, all too often politicized. This vast bank of energy lacks only the organizational skills of established organizations. Much in the same manner, as people have forgotten everything that Gloria Steinem and Germaine Greer brought to the women’s movement, this generation has not known of the efforts of Brian Davies, Paul Watson, and so many others.
‘If the seal slaughter is allowed to regain its former impetus, we risk losing what small gain we accomplished due to our collective inertia.’
On the ropes and our mistake
Because the European Union decided to prohibit the importation of whitecoats we had the sealing interests on the ropes. Rather than keep up, and even increase the pressure, we stood back. We made the collective mistake of allowing them to catch their second wind, and now they are coming back at us with a vengeance.
Our inertia, their rebirth
Regardless, due to the sheer number of other issues and the blurring of political lines, I fear the seal hunt issue may be relegated to a fourth or fifth point on some Animal Rights monthly agenda. The animal protection world must stand together on this, the Domino issue for animals in this country. Failure to organize will see the efforts of millions of people across the globe were in vain.
Note: Where do endangered species come from? They come from abundant species that have been abused or their habitats fragmented. Recognizing this fact, our energies should be directed towards the identification and true causes of lost habitats
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and do not reflect the opinions of WestmountMag.ca, its publishers or editors.
Feature image: Lysogeny, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Read also: other articles by Georges Dupras
Georges R. Dupras has advocated for animals for over fifty years. A member of the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA), a Director of the Animal Alliance of Canada (AAC), a Quebec Representative of Zoocheck Canada and a past Board member of the Canadian SPCA, he worked on the original Save the Seal campaign in 1966 that culminated in the founding of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in 1969. Georges Dupras has published two books, Values in Conflict and the eBook Ethics, a Human Condition, and currently lives in Montreal, Canada.
Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre are calling for an extended seal hunt! Where were they when the world exploded over the well exposed slaughter which eventually ended in a European and American ban on seal products? Canada’s ownership of the world’s largest and cruelest wildlife slaughter was the blackest of black eyes! Do we really want to go there again? Are a few Newfoundland swing votes worth it? To dig this up again tells me that Trudeau and Polievre are capable of stooping very low when it comes to political maneuvering! Their apparent political self interest seems to ignore, or not care, about Canada’s reputation!
Thank you, Westmount Magazine, for bringing this issue back into the forefront. Far too many Canadians assume that the annual seal hunt ended years ago because there is so little coverage of it by today’s media outlets. Sadly, these young animals are still being brutalized on the ice floes of the east coast.
Shockingly, despite no significant demand for seal fur, Canada’s Fisheries Minister has indicated a push to establish new markets for seal products to justify expanding the slaughter.
What has been infamously called “Canada’s Shame” continues to stain our reputation around the world.
Our species, with notable exceptions, excels at killing, and at finding rationales for killing…everything, ourselves included. Fortunately there is virtually no market for seal products, and certainly nothing we need. There are other sources of the omega acids that we require for health. As work in Greenland has demonstrated, fats derived from marine mammals can be high in toxins, the very thing health-conscious consumers don’t want. It’s easier to scapegoat seals for our own excesses at overfishing and the degradation of the oceanic environment; easier to make promises to seasonal fishers than develop true, sustainable, income sources. We can do better, if we have the will.
Some of our political leaders think that propping up a 17th century industry is how to win votes in a handful of Atlantic ridings. Any element of the fur trade belongs in our past. There are no significant markets for seal fur or related products. The commercial seal industry would have long ago died a natural death if it relied solely on market influences. But the annual slaughter of seals has been kept alive by successive Canadian governments pandering to some fishing communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. These ridings surely deserve economic support and development, but this outdated industry is not it. Seals are scapegoats, blamed for reducing fish populations when there is ample evidence that the effects of global climate change and over-fishing by humans are responsible for declining populations of fish. Politicians seeking Atlantic support seem ready to use our tax dollars to prop up an industry that brings us embarrassment and shame internationally.
This political opportunism seems to be without end. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador deserve real economic development in keeping with the 21st century. And the seals certainly deserve better than to be victimized again and again for the most frivolous of reasons, political opportunism.
Here we go again! Politicians using voiceless animals as scapegoats for their personal political Agenda. Above comments spell it out….no markets for seal skins and any attempt at revitalizing sealing industry will promote more wide-scale slaughter of wildlife.
There is power in numbers and, as this excellent article points out, animal protection advocates must work together to obliterate the commercial seal hunt. It is truly shameful that this barbaric slaughter still exists in our country.
It continues to boggle the mind how governments and political parties still seek to gain electoral votes by promising an increase in the brutality and death of innocent animals. I agree with Mr Dupras that if the commercial seal hunt is expanded we will lose ground on the larger battle on the protection of all animals.
Though I was not surprised to hear that Pierre Poilievre had committed to expand the largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world, I am extremely disheartened to learn that the Liberal government has similar plans.
Such plans fly in the face of the Liberal’s recent commitment to finally end the live export by air of horses crammed in wooden crates and shipped to Japan where they are slaughtered upon arrival for a raw meat delicacy called basashi.
These are gratuitously brutal animal-cruelty-based industries and they also happen to be of no significant economic value to Canada.
We should by now be well past the era of politicians trolling for a few votes on the backs of countless innocent animals.
From the few occasions years ago when I protested the seal hunt in front of Parliament Hill with a group of activists, it was abundantly clear when speaking to passersby, that the annual commercial seal hunt is truly Canada’s Shame.
I thank Mr Dupras for his decades of activism and for raising and highlighting this most recent challenge to the gains made by other kind souls years ago. I would encourage everyone to contact their Member of Parliament and express not only their strong objections to an expansion of the commercial seal hunt, but their reasons why it should be shut down completely. I would also ask these political representatives to forward your email/letter to the Minister of Fisheries, Diane Lebouthillier. I will have my email off before the end of the day!
Instead of extending and subsidizing a commercial seal hunt that is a cruel, inefficient wasteful and shameful industry, Canada should offer sealers a federal buyout program which would compensate them for their sealing licenses and develop alternative economic opportunities for them in their own communities.
If seal hunters need an alternate way to earn a living then that is what our governments should be providing. Not trying to expand a cruel, inhumane practice that should have been stopped decades ago! How can we have faith in our politicians when the leaders of both our main parties support this barbaric practice. For votes?! Disgraceful!