Eye Witness Report, 2006 Update
By Mark Glover, Campaigns Director, Respect for Animals
This April I was in Canada where I bore witness, once more, to the largest wild mammal slaughter on earth. My heart was yet again broken from the scenes I saw.
Using small inflatable boats I was amongst a team of observers that gave chase to the sealing vessels that did their best to avoid having their activities witnessed and filmed. On a number of occasions the boats actually turned around and rushed towards us trying to hit us.
The inflatable I was in was actually hit and its propeller was broken during the collision. We were lucky to survive as the icy water is so cold it is lethal at that time of year and anyone falling in would have only minutes to live.
Above: Mark Glover, Campaigns Director, Respect for Animals
Whereas in previous years I have been struck by the breathtaking beauty of this place, with the ice and snow stretching to every horizon, this spring there was hardly any ice at all. This is terrible news for the seals that depend on the ice on which they give birth. Thousands of pups, that cannot swim during their first few weeks, will have drowned but the Canadian authorities took no account of this.
The seal pups that survived were widely distributed on small pans of ice and the sealers took aim at them from moving boats with rifles.
I saw many seals shot and then dive into the water with terrible injuries. No attempts were made by the sealers to recover these fatally injured animals which were doomed to die later in agony.
Others were clubbed to death by sealers that jumped off the boats on to the pans of ice.
The seal pups looked at their killers expectantly. This was the first time they had ever seen humans. Was it fear or just curiosity in the eyes they raised to greet these new arrivals?
I forced myself to watch and take photographs as the sealers smashed their steel-tipped clubs into these beautiful creatures. It is the most brutal sight I have ever seen. As was the case when I visited during the last hunt in 2005 and in previous trips, it was clear that the sealers had scant regard for even the feeble regulations that exist. They ran from one helpless seal to the next clubbing as many as they could, ignoring the requirement to check to see if an animal was dead before moving to the next. Many weren’t and were left squirming in agony.
Above: 2005 Canadian seal hunt
I can’t begin to tell you how angry, bitter and powerless I felt as I watched the slaughter. I vowed in that moment to do everything I could to protect these beautiful creatures from harm.
But as we were gathering our evidence the Canadian authorities were preparing their next means of hampering our efforts.
The three hundred foot coastguard ship that had been shadowing our vessel for most of the day had secretly deployed police and Department of Fisheries officers on to the sealing vessels.
At a given moment the officers on board the boat we had been filming made themselves known to us and we were arrested! The reason for the arrest soon became clear as they seized our film saying it would be required for evidence.
The arrests were then used as an excuse for not issuing us with any future observation permits. It was quite clear that they wanted the hunt to continue without the world watching.
And why were we arrested? We were told that we had strayed to within 10 metres of sealing activity in breach of our permits. We absolutely deny this and to date none of us have been charged. In fact, we had no reason or desire to get closer than 10 meters to the sealers who had been throwing seal guts at us earlier on and threatening violence.
Our arrests mark an escalation in the governments and the sealers attempts to keep witnesses at bay. In 2005 those of us on the ice were repeatedly subjected to intimidation and threats by the sealers who charged towards us brandishing knives and clubs. They did not want to be filmed in their bloody work.
Above: 2005 Canadian seal hunt
Again in 2005, when the government officials arrived in their helicopter they were more intent on keeping me and the other observers the required 10 metres from the killers than actually ensuring the hunt was conducted ‘humanely’.
Comically, in response to complaints from observers, one official went to great pains to measure one of the sealers clubs to ensure it was within the legal limits – it was!
The fact is that this killing can never be humane and those that carry it out have little interest in making it so. Their main interests are speed and not being witnessed.
Respect for Animals is good at campaigning. We have already ended fur farming in Britain. We have successfully taken on and fought against the multi–billion pound a year international fur trade.
And, many years ago, I was involved with the campaign that forced through legislation that gave a little protection to the baby ‘whitecoat’ Canadian seals.
The Canadians have cynically sidestepped this legislation and the killing of seal pups is now worse than ever.
Now we have to save them completely from this barbaric slaughter.
But we are up against a powerful and callous foe. The Canadian Government fully supports the clubbing to death of the baby seals. They pour millions of dollars into the seal slaughter every year. They protect the sealers with armed police and helicopters. They throw every obstacle they can into our path.
Please help us save the seals before it’s too late.
I pledge to devote myself to ending this slaughter.