Despite the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, the notoriously brutal Canadian seal hunt is still happening, and the bloodiest months are coming. Hundreds of thousands of harp seals and their babies will be beaten with barbed clubs, shot, and many will be skinned alive for their fur.
Canada’s annual seal hunt runs from mid-November to mid-May, with the highest number of animals killed—as many as 300,000 individuals—in April and May. Harp seals give birth and are still nursing their young on the ice floes off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, during this time. In just a few weeks, the serene scene of the harp seal nursery will be shattered by violent, off-season fishermen, who will mercilessly beat and shoot seals and their babies for their fur, all the while inaccurately blaming seals for the irresponsible decline in fish which the fishermen cause themselves. The mass slaughter of seals and their babies is not only sanctioned by the Canadian government, but it is also financially supported by the government to the tune of millions of Canadian taxpayer dollars.
Animal Ethics Project 