News3 mins ago
Unmitigated cruelty
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Just seen some more reporting on the horrific seal clubbing in Canada. Why is a supposedly civilised Nation still allowed to carry on with this barbaric culling?
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I always wondered why club them to death rather than shoot them... then found this:
It's safe and easy, and it preserves the seal's valuable pelt. Federal laws in Canada give a sealer three ways to hunt his prey.
He can shoot a seal with a rifle or shotgun - provided it's above a minimum caliber or gauge; he can break its head with a blunt club (like a baseball bat) that must be at least 2 feet long; or he can smash in its brains with something called a hakapik - a 4 or 5 foot wooden pole with a bent, metal spike affixed to the end.
In general, a sealer will use a hakapik or club if at all possible. That's because with these weapons, it's much easier to aim a blow directly at the seal pup's head. One swing from a hakapik will usually kill a pup right away. By law, you have to keep clubbing the seal in the forehead until you know for sure that it's dead.
Sealers are supposed to "palpate" a pup's skull after they've clubbed it, to feel the caved-in bone beneath the skin and blubber. Or they can perform the "blink reflex" test, which consists of touching the seal's eyeball - if it blinks, you've got to club it again.
A sealer chooses his weapon depending on the conditions of the hunt. You can only club a seal if you can climb down on to the ice next to it, but the ice isn't always sturdy enough to support a full-grown man and his hakapik. On the off-shore hunting grounds near Newfoundland, the seal pups tend to sit on small, unstable pieces of ice, so sealers must use rifles to kill them.
Why not just shoot the baby seals? When you're firing from a boat that's bobbing in the water, it's hard to get a good shot. And if you don't hit the seal in the head, you're less likely to kill it quickly. That means you'll either prolong its suffering (until you can get close enough to club it), or, worse, you'll give it the chance to shuffle off into the water with its pelt still on.
It's safe and easy, and it preserves the seal's valuable pelt. Federal laws in Canada give a sealer three ways to hunt his prey.
He can shoot a seal with a rifle or shotgun - provided it's above a minimum caliber or gauge; he can break its head with a blunt club (like a baseball bat) that must be at least 2 feet long; or he can smash in its brains with something called a hakapik - a 4 or 5 foot wooden pole with a bent, metal spike affixed to the end.
In general, a sealer will use a hakapik or club if at all possible. That's because with these weapons, it's much easier to aim a blow directly at the seal pup's head. One swing from a hakapik will usually kill a pup right away. By law, you have to keep clubbing the seal in the forehead until you know for sure that it's dead.
Sealers are supposed to "palpate" a pup's skull after they've clubbed it, to feel the caved-in bone beneath the skin and blubber. Or they can perform the "blink reflex" test, which consists of touching the seal's eyeball - if it blinks, you've got to club it again.
A sealer chooses his weapon depending on the conditions of the hunt. You can only club a seal if you can climb down on to the ice next to it, but the ice isn't always sturdy enough to support a full-grown man and his hakapik. On the off-shore hunting grounds near Newfoundland, the seal pups tend to sit on small, unstable pieces of ice, so sealers must use rifles to kill them.
Why not just shoot the baby seals? When you're firing from a boat that's bobbing in the water, it's hard to get a good shot. And if you don't hit the seal in the head, you're less likely to kill it quickly. That means you'll either prolong its suffering (until you can get close enough to club it), or, worse, you'll give it the chance to shuffle off into the water with its pelt still on.
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