Tragedies of the Fur Trading Industry

Twenty and thirty years ago society took an active stand against the act of clubbing baby seals to support the fur trade. However, according to Respect for Animals, a website dedicated to the protection of these animals and stopping the fur trade, more baby seals are being killed now than during the time the protests took place ("The Bloody Facts"). In fact, "in the last four years the Canadian government has allowed 1 ¼ million baby seals to be brutally slaughtered by clubbing and shooting, with the majority of seals killed aged three months or younger" ("The Bloody Facts"). Respect for Animals also cites that "forty-two percent of these seals may have been skinned whilst still conscious" ("The Canadian Seal Hunt").

There are two ways that seals are being killed in the wild during these annual hunts. Early in the hunting season seal cubs are killed using clubs while they sit vulnerably on the surface ice; because they are still very young the seals are unable to survive in the ocean ("The Canadian Seal Hunt"). As the season progresses, fishermen shoot the animals, perched atop moving ice blocks, from boats ("The Canadian Seal Hunt"). The movement of the seals, boats, and ice blocks cause many of the animals to be injured instead of killed; the injured animals typically try to escape the fisherman and either drown or fall prey to other sea life ("The Canadian Seal Hunt").