Russia Bans Baby Seal Massacre, Canada Continues Killing Spree

Baby seals are safe from being massacred in Russia, as the country announced Wednesday that it had banned hunting the animals. The announcement came weeks after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called it a “bloody industry”.  Anti-seal hunting protesters had gathered in 20 cities and towns across Russia this week to urge a halt to the practice.

From Reuters:

“The bloody sight of the hunting of seals, the slaughter of these defenseless animals which you cannot even call a real hunt, is banned in our country, just as well as in most developed countries, and is a serious step to protect the biodiversity of the Russian Federation,” the minister for natural resources, Yuri Trutnev, said in a statement.

Seals inhabit Russia’s White Sea region in the Arctic. As in Canada and Norway, hunters target the fluffy baby seals — also known as “whitecoats” for their highly valued snow-white fur — in early spring and club thousands to death.

Meanwhile, the annual Canadian baby seal killing extravaganza is set to begin later this month. Green Daily gives us some gruesome details:

I mean, how can sealers still be allowed to:

* “hunt” a couple hundred thousand baby seals
* use a club like a caveman (i.e. hit them with a big blunt stick)
* only half kill them
* strip the skins off their painfully still-breathing bodies, and
* sell each pelt for a rocking $30 — Canadian dollars, to add insult to injury!

Btw, did I mention that hunters kill the baby seals? In front of the mother seals? Often the seal pups are just a few weeks old, and some haven’t even been in the water. Apparently that soft baby fur is what rich old ladies and vain men like best.

So, what can you do to help? Sign this online PETA petition and then join celebrity chef Cat Cora in boycotting Canadian seafood to send Canada the message that we won’t tolerate the continuation of this cruel practice. Sign a pledge at the Humane Society of the United States and then get as many of your friends and family to sign as you can. The person who gathers the most signatures will win a visit to New York City to hang with Cat and have your photo taken by photographer Nigel Barker of America’s Next Top Model.

Learn more about the killing of these innocent, fluffy, ridiculously cute animals at the Humane Society’s ‘Protect Seals 2009’ website.

Link [Reuters] + [Green Daily] + [HSUS]
Photo credit: HSUS, MyPointIs.net

Dastardly Seal Hunters Die After Boat Flips in Rough Water- No Miracle Seals Come to the Rescue

Karma can be a bitch sometimes.

Breitbart has it:

The annual Canadian seal hunt was marred Saturday by a boat accident in the ice-covered Gulf of St. Lawrence that killed members of the boat’s crew, officials said.

“There have been fatalities,” fisheries department spokesman Michel Plamondon said, but a precise casualty figure was not available.

Rescue teams recovered three bodies and another person was still missing in the waters north of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canadian media reported.

The fishing boat carrying seal hunters from the Magdalen islands capsized before dawn Saturday off Canada’s east coast, Plamondon said. CBC television reported six men were on the boat, and two have been rescued.

The boat flipped over while it was being towed back to port by the Canadian coast guard after encountering steering problems, according to local television reports.

Local radio, citing the coast guard, said the accident occurred at 1:00 am Saturday morning.

The boat, L’Acadia, was on its way to the seal herds when it lost a rudder, prompting an SOS appeal to the coast guard.

Link [Breitbart]

Photo credit: Flickr user Mikebaird