Irish MEP Backs Canada’s Cruel Sea Hunt

Friday, February 22, 2008

He claims much of what he was told prior to his visit (presumably by animal welfare organisation such as Respect for Animals) was untrue.  However he goes on to make some very interesting statements.

Firstly, he states that he found out that ‘it is illegal to hunt baby seals in Canada’.  It is true that it is illegal to kill Harp seal pups in their ‘whitecoat’ phase, but they become fair game when they shed the first of those white hairs at around 14 days of age.  The Canadian government’s own figures state that 97% of those seals killed are less than 3 months old and the majority are less than one month old. Perhaps the officials he met with failed to mention this.  No one campaigning against the cruel seal hunt in Canada claims that whitecoats are killed but to refer to seals of less than a month old who haven’t even eaten their first solid meal and can’t survive in the sea as babies can hardly be described as ‘untrue’. 

Secondly, he claims to have discovered that the hunt is a ‘lifeline’ to some Canadians.  The Canadian governments own figures state that the average amount earned from the hunt (by fishermen during the closed fishing season) is less than 5% of annual income.  This is not propaganda these are publicly available Government figures.  So again, how can he refer to this as ‘untrue’?

Respect for Animals has written to Mr O’Neachtain making these points.  It would appear that during his trip to Canada he was literally sold a pup.

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