In the wake of Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt, one of its top seal fur buyers, NuTan, recently announced that it will no longer process seals. And instead, they will focus on other areas of business. This is a bold move for a company that has received government funding for producing seal products. Sadly, the Canadian government has decided to fund other seal processors, rather than reduce the number of seals killed or shut down the seal hunt altogether.
image: Nigel Barker
Said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian Wildlife Issues for The Humane Society of the United States,”The world community has spoken and the international trade in seal products has come to a close. It is very encouraging to see NuTan’s owners shifting operations to other business. However, it is shameful that the government is now apparently financing other operations to buy seal furs, despite the lack of existing or future markets. With hundreds of thousands of seal furs reportedly stockpiled on the global market, there is no economic justification for sealers to kill seals or these companies to buy their products.”
According to The Humane Society of the United States, here are some facts about the seal hunt:
- Through the 1980s and 1990s, about $30 million was provided in government subsidies to the Canadian sealing industry.
- Millions of dollars of grants and interest-free loans were provided to companies in the 1990s to develop, market, and process seal products.
- Despite the government investment, the sealing industry continues to exist at the Canadian taxpayers’ expense, and against the will of the overwhelming majority of Canadians.
- 2010 polling revealed half of Newfoundland sealers with an opinion support a sealing industry buyout—a plan in which sealers would receive immediate compensation as the hunt is ended, and funds would be invested in economic alternatives in the communities involved.
In fact, Canada’s two largest trading partners-The European Union and the United States-have both banned the trade of seal products from commercial seal hunts. Click here to learn more about this issue and what you can do to help end the commercial seal hunt in Canada.
Click here to join Red Carpet Roxy on Twitter and here for the RCR Facebook page.
