True Confessions: Sealers Testify to the Cruelty of the Hunt
The following is direct testimony from blueback sealers, taken by
Department of Fisheries and Oceans enforcement officers. It was obtained through
Access to Information requests, and contains graphic descriptions of cruelty to
animals.
· When mothers are killed and their newborn pups abandoned on the ice, there is no chance of survival for the pup. In every case, the baby seal would have starved to death slowly.
· The use of .22 caliber rifles to shoot seals has been outlawed for humane reasons - the guns are not powerful enough to kill seals quickly.
"Prior to March 8/98 most females were
killed with the pup inside them.
...I seen seven pups
threw over the side after the female was pelted. I took two out myself. Me and
another sealer even agreed that this was shocking and there should be another
way to hunt seals. We were in the whelping on March 10/98 because I observed
that eight of tens pans of ice had young pups with the after birth and other
debris from the birth on the ice. There was once I can remember the young seal
watching his parents being hoist aboard. He watched the boat as we steamed away.
The pups were not killed but left by themselves on the ice."
Sealer's statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, June
10/98
"I did see some mother seals killed and the
pup fall out on deck still alive.
...(Name deleted) told me to
throw it overboard and I did. It crawled up on a pan of ice. The mother was full
of milk, the milk ran out on deck when the pup fell out."
Sealer's statement, taken by Cyril Furlong,
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, June
24/98
"I was present when female Hood seals were
pelted and did see pups fall out of the female on deck
...I seen this happen twice and
know that it happened eight to ten times during the first trip. I knew this
happened because of conversations with the crew. The two pups that I saw on deck
were alive. The pups were threw over board and on one occasion I did see one of
these pups swimming in the water. I don't know what happened to the pups."
Sealer's statement, taken by Cyril Furlong,
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, July 3/98, 15:33
hrs
"I seen a female being pelted and the pup
came out of her when they cut her open, the pup was dead.
...This seal was killed for a
while. This was on the day we got one hundred and seventy. Someone passed the
comment, 'If Green peace were only here to see this.'"
Sealer's
statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, June
22/98, 15:15 hrs
"We did take female Hoods and leave the
pups on the ice.
...I was on deck when a pup fell
out of a female Hood seals and I pelted the seal along with two other
crewmembers. I can't recall who they were. The pup was alive when it fell out. I
killed the pup and threw it over the side."
Sealer's
statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, July 6/98,
3:51 pm
"We were hunting for adult seals and on
several times we took the old seals and left the pups on the ice.
...The Hood seals pupped while we
were out there hunting. We did take seals before they had pups on one occasion.
I did see a pup fall out on deck while the female was being pelted. This pup was
alive and it was threw overboard. The pup was alive and swimming in the water.
The pup crawled up on the ice."
Sealer's statement, taken by Cyril Furlong,
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, July 6/98, 11:11
AM
...This happened eight or ten times. There were lots of comments made for example, 'If we only had a video camera we would make a fortune' and 'We should never be allowed out killing them'"
"There were lots of times that the male and female were killed and taken on board and the pup left on the ice, sometimes the pup had blood on it as it was just born. We had approximately five hundred and fifty seals for the trip, approximately four hundred were hood seals of which at least one hundred and fifty were females."
"The seals were always in a net bag in the speed boat,
when they were hoist on board there were numerous 22 caliber rifle casings among
the seals. They were often kicking around the deck of the longliner, I seen the
observer Rex Hodder pick them up and throw them over aboard. He had to know that
the 22 guns were being used. They even make a different sound to the heavier
gun. There was an effort to hide these guns from Rex Hodder. They were passed
down through the vents in the engine room. They were kept in cases while in the
two speedboats. We landed something over three thousand seals fro the trip. We
got in somewhere around the 21st of April, 1998. I don't think that the
22-caliber rifle is powerful enough to kill even a beater seal. I often seen
seals alive after we hoist the seals them out of the speedboats. We would finish
them off with a hakapik."
Sealer's
statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, June
24/98, 19:40 hrs
"All the females we took, the pups were
left on the ice.
...The pup was left on the ice
after the female was killed and taken on board."
Sealer's statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, July
14/98
"Sometimes he told me to kill the male and
female and sometimes to kill the male only. The pup was always left.
...
It seemed he told me to kill everything when seals were
scarce. Sometimes the seals were not that old because there was blood where they
were
born."
"At
the end of the day everyone would lend a hand pelting seals. There were two or
three cut out of the female while she was being pelted, they were killed and
threw over aboard. There was a lot of talk as to weather this was right or a
good thing to be doing. Everyone was aware of
it."
"The
best day we done, we took approximately one hundred and eighty. We were taking
male and females that day and this was towards the end of the trip. There were a
lot of pups around and they were all left on the ice. The following day we
killed some females that were accompanied by the male and
pup."
"The
four of us were present when the pups were cut out of the female, (deleted) were
aware of this also. We had approximately eight hundred seals for the trip and
about one quarter or better would be females."
Sealer's statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, July 10/98, 19:15
hrs
"During the second trip we left fifteen or
twenty pups alone after taking the family.
...There were mistakes made by
killing pregnant female hoods, this happened approximately six times but they
never came out on deck. I am an experienced sealer so I knew they were pregnant.
We were not saving the meat so the pup went over aboard with the carcass."
Sealer's
statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, August
11/98, 16:50 hrs
"There were a few occasions when we took
the make and female Hood seals and left the pup on the ice.
...
I observed on two occasions for the trip pups falling out
of the female while being pelted on deck. The two pups I observed were alive and
were thrown over the side. I seen these pups crawl up on the ice after we threw
them over
aboard."
"I probably killed three to four hundred seals with the 22 caliber rifle…There
was conversations between the skipper and myself and the crew to make an effort
to hide the 22 rifles from the observer."
Sealer's statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, June 29/98, 10:45
hrs
"After the females were pelted and pups
fell out onto the deck the pups were thrown over the side.
...I did see a couple move around
in the water behind the boat. They appeared to be alive and swimming. We watched
a seal that came out of the old one on deck try to get up on a pan of ice. It
did not get up to my knowledge. This did bother me to see seals flapping around
in the water and trying to get up on the ice."
Sealer's statement, taken by Fergus Foley, Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, June 28/98, 16:30
hrs
;)
© IFAW
