Shane Briand, son of Pat Briand, the skipper of the Nova Scotian vessel Cathy Erlene, was quoted by CBC as saying that he would be following the new rules. On March 31, 2008, crew members of the Cathy Erlene were videotaped by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Skipper Pat Briand and his crew, including son Shane, were caught on videotape not only failing to follow "those new rules" but also violating Marine Mammal Regulations and inflicting horrendous cruelty on defenceless seal pups, resulting in unnecessary and unacceptable suffering.

Briand and his crewmates were videotaped shooting seal pups and leaving them to writhe in agony on the ice as they slowly made their way to where the pups lay. In at least one instance, despite the ice being thick enough to step down and perform the required three-step process, and despite the pup being demonstrably conscious, they simply leaned over the side of the boat, impaled the wounded pup through the head with a large metal hook and hauled her onboard. She was then thrown onto the deck of the boat and left to writhe in agony while they hooked and dragged a second pup onboard. Her movements onboard the boat cannot be explained away as "swimming reflex". They are movements of an animal exhibiting conscious reaction to pain. Finally one of the crew kicked her into position, clubbed her once, kicked her again, and clubbed her a second time. The sealer then turned away from her, failing to test for consciousness and failing to sever her arteries after stunning her, as is required under the new three-step process.

One pup was shot multiple times and tried desperately to escape, leaving a smeared trail of blood behind her. Finally, after suffering on the ice for an unacceptably long period of time, one of Briand's cohorts approached with a crude wooden bat. After bludgeoning the pup three times and giving her a quick slap on the side of the head (which appeared to be his perfunctory attempt at testing for consciousness) he flipped the pup over and, ignoring the fact that she was still moving, sliced her wide open while his cohort clubbed a second pup three times, threw his club onto the ice and hurled the pup through the air after it. Both pups were then dragged back to the boat where they were hauled onboard. These pups were bled but the interval between the pups being shot and being bled was far too long and it is obvious upon review of the video that at least one pup suffered horribly and unnecessarily.

In another instance, a pup had been shot at least twice and wounded. As the Cathy Erlene approached, the pup was still moving. Whether the movements were conscious reaction to pain or swimming reflex, I do not know. More to the point, Briand and his crew would not have known either. Rather than step onto the ice to test for consciousness, they simply stabbed the gaff through the head of the moving pup and hauled her onboard. This pup was not clubbed or tested for consciousness. One crew member simply kicked her over onto her back and sliced her open, while a second crew member nonchalently sipped something from a bottle. They then threw her on the pelting bench and began their grisly task of skinning her.

This is the very ship that claimed the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessel Farley Mowat approached them and broke the ice beneath their feet the day previously. On March 30th the crew of Cathy Erlene requested assistance from the Coast Guard and news reports state that the Coast Guard had to protect Cathy Erlene and her crew as they continued killing seals. It is interesting to note that while the Canadian Coast Guard and Department of Fisheries and Oceans were acting as personal bodyguards for the crew of Cathy Erlene, neither Coast Guard nor DFO noticed the crew's flagrant violations of Marine Mammal Regulations and obvious failure to comply with new licensing rules. I suspect DFO spent all of its time and energy monitoring the actions of the crew of Farley Mowat as they attempted to lawfully observe the slaughter of seals, and did not bother monitoring the actions of the crew of Cathy Erlene. It is obvious, from this video footage alone, that the Canadian commercial seal hunt is far from the "closely monitored and tightly regulated" industry the Canadian government claims it to be.

It is a common ploy of seal killers to report observers to DFO, knowing that observers will be removed from the area pending an investigation and, coincidentally, oftentimes the investigation is not conducted until the year's slaughter has concluded. The crew aboard Cathy Erlene knew Farley Mowat would be removed from the area, and believed this would enable them to cruelly slaughter seals unwatched, since DFO was devising various tricks to prevent observers holding permits from observing the slaughter. They were wrong. Their acts of cruelty were captured on video and now we can see why the crew of Cathy Erlene didn't want to be observed or filmed.

The crew aboard Cathy Erlene had recently slaughtered thousands of grey seal pups on wilderness protected area Hay Island and privately-owned Henry Island, then serving as crew under Robert Courtney's boat Little Kaitlynn. Armed with crude wooden bats and boxcutters, descended on those two islands and decimated the population of grey seal pups born this year. Bridget Curran of Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition and Rebecca Aldworth of Humane Society International/Canada were present on Hay Island to film the carnage. The annual annihilation of grey seal pups had been conducted in secret by these men with the blessing of DFO and the Nova Scotian government, and until this year it was Nova Scotia's dirty little secret. Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition and Humane Society Internation/Canada shone a spotlight on Nova Scotia's cruel practices and has brought the plight of Nova Scotia grey seals to the world.

The greed and callousness of Nova Scotia fishermen such as Pat Briand and sons, William Murphy, John Buchanan and Robert Courtney was their undoing in Nova Scotia in February 2008. They had been slaughtering grey seal pups in secret for years until their greed drove them to demand access to a Protected Wilderness Area. This opened the grey seal hunt up to public scrutiny and international condemnation for the first time ever. Their greed and callousness is now also the undoing of the entire sealing industry, as this video is glaring proof that Canada's commercial seal hunt is just as inhumane, unmonitored and unenforced as ever. Despite the Canadian government's claims that the three-step process will ensure humane harvesting techniques and despite DFO and Canadian Coast Guard being present in the area while these atrocities were committed, these men were allowed to violate Marine Mammal Regulations, new licensing conditions and inflict horrendous cruelty on the seal pups they were hunting. These men have not been charged for their offences. In fact, Canadian government officials stood guard over them, "protecting" them from observers onboard Farley Mowat, while these seal killers from Nova Scotia continued their violations and barbaric actions.

The cruelty is not limited to Nova Scotian seal killers, however. Seal killers from Newfoundland and Magdalen Islands have been caught on video this year violating Marine Mammal Regulations, ignoring the three-step process and killing seal pups in an unspeakably cruel manner, while DFO looks the other way. This is typical of video that is collected each and every year on the east coast of Canada during the commercial seal hunt. It is the Nova Scotian seal killers, however, with their acts of extreme violence against weeks-old grey seal pups on Hay Island and Henry Island, their recent penchant for media attention and bogus claims against law-abiding observers that have become, to me, the personification of the savagery behind this annual slaughter of defenceless baby seals.

This horrific slaughter of baby seals must not be allowed to continue. Take action today to ensure it ends now.