It’s a cruel slaughter.

Fully 95 percent of the harp seals killed over the past five years have been under just three months of age. At the time of slaughter, many of these defenceless pups had not yet eaten their first solid food or taken their first swim - they literally had no escape from the “hunters”.

Video evidence clearly shows sealers routinely drag conscious pups across the ice with boathooks, shoot seals and leave them to suffer in agony, and even skin seals alive.

In 2001, an independent team of veterinary experts studied Canada’s commercial seal hunt. Their report concluded that in 42% of the cases they examined, the seal did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning.

It’s a reckless cull.

In 2003, the Canadian government authorized the highest quota for harp seals in history, allowing nearly a million to be slaughtered over three years. In 2004, more than 353,000 harp seals were killed for their fur – the largest slaughter witnessed in half a century.

The last time sealers killed this many seals – in the 1950s and 60s - close to two thirds of the harp seal population was wiped out.

The seal hunt brings in very little money for the few people involved. Even in Newfoundland, where 90% of sealers live, income from sealing accounts for less than one-tenth of one percent of the province’s economy.

Sealers are fishermen who engage in several fisheries throughout the year, and sealing revenues account for only about one twentieth of their total incomes.

Killing seals may harm fish stocks.

About 3 percent of a harp seal’s diet consists of commercially fished cod. However, harp seals also consume many significant predators of cod, including squid. Removing harp seals may mean an increase in cod predators. The Canadian government clearly states there is no evidence killing harp seals will help fish stocks recover, and scientists have expressed concerns that culling seals may in fact impede the recovery of ground fish stocks.

If you oppose the seal hunt, you’re in good company.

Polling shows 71% of Canadians – including 60% of Atlantic Canadians - support banning the seal hunt outright, or limiting the hunt to seals over one year of age. (Ipsos-Reid, 2004).

In EU countries where polling has been conducted – the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands – close to 80% of people who are aware of the Canadian seal hunt oppose it (MORI, 2002).

Polling shows 79% of American voters oppose the Canadian seal hunt (Penn, Schoen & Berland, 2002).