Ending Canada's cruel commercial hunt

Every year, the frozen landscape off Canada’s East Coast is stained with blood, as tens of thousands of baby seals are brutally slaughtered on the ice, their skins sold for luxury products.

IFAW was founded in 1969 to stop this cruel hunt for seals. By the 1980s, our work, and the outrage of millions of people around the world, led to a significant victory as imports of whitecoat harp seals and blueback hooded seals were banned in Europe.

But in the late 1990s, despite intense international pressure, the Canadian government did the unthinkable and poured millions of dollars into promoting the slaughter of harp seals, even increasing quotas. Today, ignoring clear evidence of the cruelty of seal hunting and the global outcry against it, the Canadian government continues to support the industry. But as it continues, the international pressure to end seal hunting grows.

In 2009, we won a major triumph when the European Union banned trade of all seal products, single-handedly wiping out an important market. Other markets for seal products are collapsing around the world and today Canada’s commercial seal hunt costs more to support than it earns. Fewer hunters are participating, and commercial sealing appears to be in steady decline.

But until Canada’s commercial seal hunt ends forever, we will fight against it: documenting its cruelty, presenting our evidence to the authorities, researching, educating, lobbying for legislative change and working to shut down markets for seal products.

Learn more:

• Answers to frequently asked questions
• Why commercial seal hunts are cruel
• The economics of Canada’s commercial seal hunt
• Seals and sealing research and statistics report