Wanton Cruelty

I had just read an article about the hunt for baby seals in the icy regions of Northern Canada and I was horrified. Not only was the hunt relentless and competitive, but the methods used to kill the poor, defenseless baby seals, some of them only a few days old, are extremely cruel.
The sealers use wooden bats and hakapiks (clubs with metal spikes at the end) or rifles to kill the seal pups.

Conditions at the seal hunting grounds are unfavourable---very cold, very windy. The icy ground is slippery. Given the poor conditions and the speed at which the sealers have to work, they may not always be accurate. Instead of clubbing the baby seals on the head, they may hit them on the face, jaw or body. Many baby seals are left, half-dead, their suffering intense.
I remember watching a video of sealers in action.My blood ran cold at seeing the tall. huge men pounce on their small, unsuspecting victims, clubbing them repeatedly, before moving on to the next round of slaughter and the next, and the next.
Why are baby seals being hunted? They are prized for their skins.
The thought of thousands of tiny, bloody bodies littering a large, white expanse of snow and ice is nauseating.
Once again, man’s greed has brought about wanton destruction and cruelty to the animal world.

Click here to perk up your spirits!!