Harb bill update – May 2, 2012
Conservative and Liberal parties of Canada support the seal hunt, rather the taxpayer supports it. Both party’s stance seems an effort of keeping the crucial votes from coastal communities. In the past, this has caused Members of Parliament who are against the seal hunt, or would just like to discuss ending it, to keep their silence.
Senator Mac Harb (L), who had already presented his bill in 2010, but was greeted with only the sound of crickets, wasn’t able to get a second motion, which didn’t allow for debate of finally ending the commercial seal slaughter.
Today, Senator Larry Campbell (L) seconded the motion, and was voted unanimously by all parties. This will bring the bill to debate at the second reading.
The Harb bill gives ample proof that the seal hunt, which is performed by full-time fishermen, has lost its customers.
Taxpayer funds have been used to stockpile seals, in the hopes someone would buy them, but as each year passes, more and more countries are not only banning the products, but urging the Canadian government to stop the cruel practice.
Senator Harb’s bill calls for a transition for the fishermen, who make approximately 1% of their income by killing seals.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has been urging a license buyout, and in a Green Party announcement today said, “The sealing industry had been dying for years. It’s time to stop providing life support to this disappearing industry by ending the massive government subsidies.”
The call for the commercial seal hunt is separate from the hunting performed by aboriginal peoples, which this does not affect.
Boycotts and closed borders have radically cut international demand for seal products.
The seal hunt is underway in the northern area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, although fishermen with larger vessels says markets are too small to justify the expense of even heading out.
So far, the vessels heading out from Newfoundland’s west coast are smaller members of the local fleet.
“For us to be at it, we got to have better markets than what it is,” said Dwight Spence, a veteran Port au Choix fisherman who operates a 65-foot vessel. Spence said he would need to be able to take in at least 2,000 pelts to make a profit.
The killing can legally begin November 15. Please remember that while we encourage you to send petitions, they have been received by Canada’s government by the thousands for decades. More needs to be done and it doesn’t take any money.
Canada’s annual seal slaughter, which is brutally performed by full-time commercial fisherman, is gasping to stay alive. It’s only through government subsidies, (taxpayer money) that it has been kept in operation.
As Keith Ashfield takes over where Gail Shea left off as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, watch him come up with reason after reason to buy more time to keep it going.
Unfortunately, Canada only needs to come up with excuses for a short period of time each year. Sadly, when the killing stops, the majority of the efforts to stop next year’s slaughter come to a halt.
Help us fight this atrocity so that finally, the cruel practices of skinning-alive and head-bashing in the nurseries of harp (and gray) seals will end forever.
PLEASE READ BEFORE CLICKING ON WWF’s THOUGHTS ON THE SEAL HUNT
Please note that WWF’s attempts to mislead by representing the seal hunting by indigenous peoples as being one-and-the-same as the commercial seal slaughter. These are two completely separate hunts, each having their own quota, with the commercial mass slaughter being performed for additional income by full-time fishermen. (though fishermen have admitted there is no money in the pelts or the hunt, but go out during their off-season merely to kill of the seals. This allows for more over-fishing.)
Because of WWF’s disregard for the violations and cruelty permitted annually in Canada by commercial fishermen, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been able to use them to appear as having some sort of standard, maintained and approved by an animal welfare organization. This of course is not the case. Marine Mammal Regulations are not abided-by and the slaughter is not sustainable.
Click here for WWF Canada’s Seal Hunt Position Statement (2009)
