The inhumane gestures of Canadian officials seem to go a bit humane, but not out of humanity ‘ its prevailing necessity.
Despite animal rights protests, Canadian hunters are allowed to kill young harp seals off the east coast. And in a hunt, the seals are either shot or clubbed to death on ice floes — how inhumane!
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans set this year’s seal quota down from 335,000 in 2006 to 270,000 animals. According to its estimation, there is around 5.5 million of the harp seal herd in the east coast.
This year, the seal hunting will be cut by a quarter, as the condition of ice there is poor and it is where the animals give birth, according to officials. To stop the hunters from killing more than their quota, the federal fisheries ministry also promised stricter controls on them.
Kevin Stringer of the ministry said,
There are poorer ice conditions than usual in the southern Gulf ... the area that we are concerned about is significant but it is one small piece of the overall hunt.
The decrease this year is very substantial ... we think it’s an important move and is sustainable.
