Practical Issues > Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping - Index > Trapping

In its lead editorial, in the January 19, 2005 edition:
Canada's National Post has come out forcefully against the seal hunt.

It opens:
"Each year, mostly within a few spring days, hundreds of thousands of baby seals are killed in brutal and inhumane fashion off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. This year's hunt should be the last, at least in its present form."

It provides horrifying images:
"A panel of veterinarians who observed the hunt in 2001 reported that as many as 42% of the seals whose carcasses they studied appeared to have been skinned while they were still conscious. Whereas the preferred manner to kill a seal is to render it unconscious with a single blow and then bleed it to death, live seals are often dragged across the ice by hooks before being skinned. In 40% of filmed cases studied by the same vets, injured animals were left on the ice after being clubbed once before hunters returned to hit them a second time. And that doesn't even include the seals that are shot by hunters but escape under the ice, where they die agonizing deaths.

"Following the vets' damning report, which received considerable international attention, the federal government should have put an end to this macabre harvest. Instead, the seal hunt was expanded."

We see evidence that we must continue to do everything we can to make sure the animal protection movement is inclusive and bi-partisan in the line:
"Opposition to the seal hunt is not limited to tree-hugging left-wingers. Mr. Scully, who has emerged as one of the most articulate anti-hunt voices, is a former speechwriter for George W. Bush." You may recall that Scully penned a beautiful op-ed on behalf of the seals that ran in the National Post on January 5.
( See http://www.DawnWatch.com/ 1-05_Animal_Media_Alerts.htm#SCULLY ) The editorial refers to points he made. One might suspect that his stance, and his op-ed, helped influence the stance this national and conservative paper has chosen to take.

Since the piece also discusses the damage the hunt does to Canada's international reputation, appreciative letters from people outside of the US, who read  the piece on the web, are appropriate. You can read it on line at:
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/ news/comment/story.html?id=74a22975-ce65-4560-98b5-8b22aa64fe35
OR http://tinyurl.com/67nab and send appreciative letters at:
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/ info/contactus/mailto.html?name=Letters&SUBJECT=Letter%20To%20The%20Editor OR http://tinyurl.com/7xk4j

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn