The Secret Slaughter

There is another slaughter of baby seals that occurs on the east coast of Canada each year. This slaughter is on a much smaller scale and happens very quietly, away from the public notice, but the nature of the slaughter is the same. Fishermen, untrained in so-called "humane killing techniques" who pay just a few dollars for a sealing license, descend on recently weaned defenceless seal pups and proceed to shoot and bludgeon them to death. The pups' skin is then ripped from their bodies and oftentimes the carcasses are left to rot.

Motivation to Kill

Why do Nova Scotia fishermen kill grey seal pups? What drives a man (or woman) to bash in the skull of a defenceless seal pup? It is not for economic reasons - Nova Scotia fishermen cannot claim to rely on the annual slaughter to supplement their income in order to feed their families. If asked, fishermen will give the following reasons:

1. Seals are eating all "their" fish;

2. Seals destroy fishing gear in their efforts to eat all "their" fish;

3. Seals pass worms to the fish, rendering "their" fish less valuable to fishermen.

The truth is simpler. Hatred. Nova Scotia fishermen despise grey seals, considering them to be "pests" and "rodents" in direct competition for the fish that humans have themselves grossly over-fished to the point of annihilation.

Long before the commercial seal hunt, humans have persecuted grey seals, killing them for generous government bounties, hunting them down and shooting them using government-issued "nuisance seal" licenses. Indeed, the "nuisance seal" licenses are used fast and loose, with fishermen hunting down seals and killing them even when they are not in the act of destroying fishing gear. Grey seals are killed by Nova Scotia fishermen simply for sport and hatred. Now they claim there is a profit to be made from killing grey seals.

That claim is questionable. The skin of grey seals is far less valuable than the skin of other species of seal. With a growing list of European countries implementing or announcing plans to implement bans on seal products, an EU-wide ban being contemplated by the European Commission, any demand for grey seal skins will quickly disappear. Additionally, claims of markets eager to purchase the flesh of grey seals is highly suspect, considering the high incidence of brucellosis, an infectious disease that can be transmitted to humans through contact with contaminated products derived from infected animals.

Inhumane, Unregulated and Unmonitored Slaughter

A DFO official in February of 2007 admitted to a Coalition founding member that the annual slaughter of grey seal pups in Port Hood, Nova Scotia is unregulated, unmonitored and very likely inhumane. For details of that statement, please see the related press release.

DFO does not guarantee that quotas are not exceeded (DFO relies on "hail-ins" from sealers, wherein sealers will call in and tell them how many seals they have killed) and does not monitor the killing ("We don’t look over their shoulders as they work"). Nova Scotia fishermen are given free reign to kill as many grey seals as they can find and kill them in any manner they see fit.

A "New Tradition"

Appalled? Want to stop it? Please check out this page to find out how you can take action to put an end to this atrocity. We have one annual seal slaughter of which we are ashamed and are acting to stop - we do NOT need another one!