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April 6, 2010

Live from the Ice 2010

Humane Society International/Canada

The ProtectSeals team once again bore witness to the annual commercial harp seal hunt—the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet.

• Latest Video 
• More Videos
• Slideshow
• April 13, 2010: Closing Time
• April 12, 2010: Tragedy, Hope
• April 12, 2010: Bear Witness
• April 11, 2010: The Slaughter Continues
• April 10, 2010: To Be a Baby Seal
• April 10, 2010: Eyes Wide Open
• April 9, 2010: Dark Day
• April 8, 2010: The Slaughter Begins
• April 8, 2010: Stand With Us
• April 7, 2010: A Last Day of Innocence
• April 6, 2010: Countdown Begins

Latest Video

Slideshow

April 13, 2010

Closing time

by Rebecca Aldworth

The 2010 commercial seal slaughter is slowly winding down. Spring is marching on and, with the warming temperatures, the harp seal nursery is literally melting away. The sealers have killed almost all of the pups in the areas we observed. What remains are shrinking ice pans covered in crimson blood.

In the coming weeks, the harp seals who have survived the commercial seal hunt and the record-low ice cover this year begin their slow migration back to Greenland. The ProtectSeals team is leaving too, for we have gathered more than enough evidence to help shut down this slaughter for good. Our work to save the seals from the 2011 seal hunt begins here.

We are in a race against time. Just 11 months from now, next year's seal pups will face another brutal slaughter—unless we stop it first.

Today, we take our images from the 2010 seal hunt and send them around the world. The baby seal who was shot in the face and suffered horribly did not die in vain. Her death will be remembered, in the halls of the European Parliament and beyond. The seal pup who crawled in agony through his own blood will motivate nations to ban seal products and seafood distributors to avoid Canadian seafood. In the end, the blows struck against the baby seals this year will be like a boomerang, crushing the industry that motivated them.

What we documented this year at the seal slaughter has been horrific. In the 12 years I have born witness to Canada's commercial seal kill, I have rarely seen such cruelty and suffering. The Canadian government's claims of a humane slaughter will be exposed for the cynical propaganda they are in the face of our video evidence.

There is no worse time in my life than the days I spend observing this slaughter. For most people, the approach of spring means happiness and renewal, but for me, it is a time of dread and misery. Each moment that brings me closer to the opening day of the seal hunt is progressively worse, until that awful day arrives. It takes every ounce of strength that I have to bear witness to this massacre.

But as I leave the sealing grounds, I do, somehow, feel a sense of renewal. Another chance to change the fate of these seals, to work together with the best people in the world to shut down the worst slaughter.

We hold the fate of the seals in our hands. And never have we been so close to ending this killing for good. The sealing industry today is a shadow of its former self. This year, fewer than 30 sealing vessels hailed out in an area where nearly 1,000 usually operate. Tens of thousands of seals have died, but hundreds of thousands will live through the slaughter this year. Our campaign to close global markets for seal products has caused prices for seal fur to crash, and most sealers cannot find buyers at all this year.

Our boycott of Canadian seafood has achieved the support of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals. Best of all, a recent poll shows half of Newfoundland sealers holding an opinion are willing to consider a federal buyout of the sealing industry that would compensate them for lost revenue and develop economic alternatives.

The end is in sight, but we need to give everything we have to this campaign to save the baby seals in the coming year. With you on our side, I know we can end it. We can restore peace to Canada's ice floes.

April 12, 2010

Tragedy, hope

by Rebecca Aldworth

Today the ProtectSeals team is once again flying out to the area where the sealing boats are operating. Yesterday, from the air, we filmed horrible suffering, and we are certain that if the sealing boats are still out there we’ll see the same today. Clearly, these sealers care nothing about following even the few, inadequate rules that exist to protect baby seals.

But even as we head toward the sealing grounds, we are hopeful that the killing may be winding down. This year, the top buyer of seal fur in Canada reportedly decided not to purchase any baby seal skins. One other seal fur processor did agree to buy up to 50,000 skins—and given the clear lack of market demand this year, I can only wonder what government subsidy facilitated that purchase.

The sealing industry is coming to an end. Despite the posturing of my government, it is clear the only way Canada can keep this outdated, globally condemned slaughter going is through subsidies. (And those subsidies come from a Canadian public that overwhelmingly opposes the seal hunt and the use of their tax dollars for that purpose.)

The low demand this year means hundreds of thousands of baby seals will survive the slaughter. It has been a hard fight to save them, and our work is not over yet. But it’s reassuring to know that our campaign is working. And it’s working because of you.

Thank you for standing with the ProtectSeals team as we bear witness to the 2010 commercial seal slaughter—and for sharing our unwavering belief that we can and will make it history. We have never been closer than we are now.

April 12, 2010

Bear witness

by Rebecca Aldworth

There are days like yesterday in every expedition to film the baby seal slaughter. Days when horrible weather conditions keep us from reaching the ice floes but do not prevent the sealers from killing the seals.

Yesterday, the ProtectSeals team attempted to observe the seal hunt from our rigid, inflatable boat. Sadly, after hours of battling high winds and waves, we had to make the decision to turn back. We were devastated—to know this slaughter would go on without witnesses was too much to bear.

But then we received news. Our helicopter, equipped with a high-powered camera, had managed to make it through the high winds to the sealing area. As we were slowly making our way back to port, our helicopter hovered in the sky above the sealing boats, filming everything. And as usual, multiple violations of the law were caught on tape. Yet again, sealers failed to check to ensure the seals were unconscious before hooking, dragging and cutting them open.

One seal was shot in the chest. As blood poured out from under him, he slowly raised his head and tried to crawl. It took an eternity for sealers to arrive and club him. Another seal—still alive—was thrown onto a pile of bloody dead seals in a sealing boat. Realizing the seal was still moving, a sealer smashed his club down onto her skull, in the midst of the dead pile.

These baby seals are subjected to unimaginable suffering every day that this slaughter goes on. They are dying in the most horrible ways, at the hands of this awful industry.

We come out here to expose that suffering to the world. The sealing industry would like the brutality of this slaughter to remain a secret, for the killing to happen out of public view. But we can’t let that happen, and your support ensures it won’t. Because of you, the tragic deaths of these defenseless animals will ultimately bring down the sealing industry. As the images of this cruelty are broadcast around the world, global markets for seal products are closing, and consumers are taking action to stop the slaughter.

Because of the images we gather of this horrible hunt, those who would defend this atrocity simply have no defense.

April 11, 2010

The slaughter continues

by Rebecca Aldworth

They lay on an ice pan, just a few feet away from each other. The two seal pups were sleeping quietly: a picture of peace. If they had only known that a hundred meters away, a sealing vessel was bearing down on them fast.

Sensing danger, one baby seal looked up. As he nervously glanced across the ice, a bullet smashed into his face. He fell back, bleeding. The other seal looked toward him worriedly, and, as she did, another bullet blasted across the ice and hit her in the face. The blood began to pour from her, but she slowly pulled her head up and began to crawl, dragging herself forward. In agony, she slowly moved in a complete circle, blood trailing behind her. From the air, we could see her sliding through her own blood as she cried.

Finally, the sealing boat arrived, and she was shot again. As she collapsed, the first seal rolled over—he too had been alive and suffering all this time. A sealer ran onto the ice, smashing his club into both their heads. Without checking to see if the seals were unconscious, he hooked both of them in their faces, pulling them onto the boat. As we flew over in the helicopter, we could see that one seal was still moving. Unconcerned, the sealers sliced the pups open, one after the other—a grisly and painful death, and just more evidence of why this slaughter must be stopped.

For much of the year, we see opportunistic Canadian politicians organizing increasingly tasteless events to promote the sealing industry and seal-fur markets (along with their own careers). But those politicians are ironically silent now. As the baby seals are brutalized on the ice floes, these politicians seem entirely at a loss for words.

I don’t blame them. What words could defend what we have filmed in the past three days? What propaganda could ever counter the cries of a wounded baby seal choking on her own blood? What excuses could erase the image of a baby seal whose face has been torn apart by a bullet as she screams in agony?

They have no words. They have no excuses. Because there are none.

As my political representatives take to the international stage to promote the sealing industry, we are ready. With our evidence being broadcast globally now, let’s see the Canadian government try to explain exactly how “humane” this bloody slaughter is.

April 10, 2010

To be a baby seal

by Rebecca Aldworth

Up here in a helicopter, observing Canada’s commercial seal hunt, you witness each baby seal subjected to a slow and torturous death. For the sealing industry, the deaths of these seals are just statistics—a percentage of the quota filled, another skin to sell.

But imagine being that pup.

The bullet tears into you. You are only three weeks old, and you don't understand what has happened—why you are in so much pain. You try to crawl desperately, to escape the agony. You see another pup close to you on the ice, and you turn toward her, only to see a bullet rip through her.

Your blood spills out behind you as you drag yourself toward the only safety around—the water. But you don't yet know how to swim, and you stare helplessly into it. Another bullet slams into you, and you scream. And then you hear the roar of the boat engine, the shouts of the sealers. You have never seen a human before, but somehow you know they mean to hurt you. You are far too young to be able to defend yourself, but, pathetically, you try to make a stand, rearing your head back as the sealer approaches. It is all you can do.

But instead of mercy, you see a bloody club raised in the air. The club smashes into your face, stunning you momentarily, as blood pours out of you.

But you are not dead. In fact, you’re still conscious. The sealer takes a metal hook and stabs it through your jaw, then drags you along. You are in so much pain, and you clench your tail, but no one takes notice. Instead, still another torture awaits, as the sealers awkwardly impale you on a second hook, this time through the flipper.

Together, two men attempt to hoist your body on board, the steel hooks slicing through your body. You are slammed onto the deck of the boat. But you are still not dead.

Finally, a sealer realizes this, and he reaches over for his club. As you watch that club smash down, you realize you are dying. In your short life, you have only experienced pain and misery at the hands of these humans. And you can only wonder, "Why are you doing this to me?"

This is Canada’s commercial seal slaughter. This is what takes place every year in the name of fashion—these baby seals mean nothing more to the sealers than however much their fur coats can bring. They cannot fight for themselves, so we have to. The cowards who rip the skins from the backs of these helpless animals must face opponents, and we are those opponents. We must be the voice of every seal pup they have beaten to death to make a quick buck.

We must sound the cries of every wounded, brutalized baby seal killed out here, merging them into a single shout loud enough to be heard in the farthest corners of our planet: "End. It. Now.”

Help us expose the suffering of these baby seals to the world. Tell everyone. Help us end it now.

April 10, 2010

Eyes wide open

by Rebecca Aldworth

I am searching for words to describe what I have seen this afternoon. Every time I close my eyes, the blood-slicked carcasses of the dead seals are there. The bloodied bodies of seals hurling through the air, tossed like garbage onto the sealing vessels. The anguished face of a shot seal, screaming in pain.

There is so much blood. It saturates the ice, slicks across the water, covers the decks of the boats and the sealers. There is death in all directions.

Today we saw so many examples of it. A seal was shot across the back: the bullet created a huge bloody wound, but the seal was still conscious. Another bullet slammed across the ice, and another. Four shots later, and the seal pup was still conscious, bloody and in pain. For several minutes we filmed from our helicopter, waiting for the sealers to come. They left him to suffer for what seemed like an eternity before finally arriving to club the seal. Without bothering to find out if the seal was unconscious, the sealer took a knife and sliced the pup open from end to end. Another seal looked up just as a club smashed into her skull. Still another began to thrash about in a pile of dead bodies on the boat. It took several minutes for a sealer to notice and halfheartedly club her.

Even if we had not been so far away, we are prevented by Canadian law from helping these suffering creatures. All we are permitted to do is watch and document every atrocity.

You might think that after seeing countless seals brutalized at the commercial seal hunt, this would all get easier. But, it doesn’t.

When you watch this kind of casual violence day after day, year after year, it has a cumulative effect. For some people, the anger turns to despair. They burn out, unable to continue the fight.

For me, it is different. Each death I see is as hard to witness as the first one I saw twelve years ago. But the anger I feel is like a fuel: It builds and builds, giving me the strength to wage our campaign throughout the year to shut this industry down forever.

This year, I will fight harder than ever for these seals. I will not stop until the slaughter is stopped. We are battling a ruthless industry and political opportunists in my government who care nothing for truth, decency, or basic compassion.

The ice floes off Canada’s east coast are a place of death right now. But just as the seals are dying, so too is the sealing industry. Every club the sealers bring down on a stricken baby seal, every bullet that tears into a defenseless pup—each one is a deathblow to the future of the slaughter.

Please join me in being a witness. Together, we’ll make the sights and sounds of clubs and rifle blasts echo around the world—until the seals are finally safe.

April 9, 2010

Dark day

by Rebecca Aldworth

My government tells the world that the commercial seal slaughter is humane, closely monitored, and tightly regulated. That’s a lie, and our footage from today proves it.

The baby seals are so helpless out here. So young that they are not yet swimming, these three-week-old pups are visible targets on the tiny pieces of ice they’re floating on. The sealers, out to make a quick buck, are clubbing and shooting every one they find. It is unimaginably hard to be up here—in a helicopter 1,000 feet in the air—bearing witness to what is happening.

Today, unlike on the first day of the slaughter, we saw a Canadian coast guard boat and an enforcement plane in the area. But the government representatives did nothing to stop sealers from shooting seals and leaving them to suffer.

Nothing to prevent sealers from impaling seals on metal hooks and dragging them across the ice, throwing seals onto boats, and cutting open seals—all without checking once to see if the seals were unconscious. The Canadian government did nothing to enforce the few inadequate regulations that are on the books.

In front of us, two pups lay on one ice pan, blissfully unaware of a sealing vessel bearing down on them. One of the baby seals was shot but not killed. He thrashed around in agony, lifting his head. Just feet away from him, the other seal was shot seconds later and lay bleeding on the ice. The first seal continued to suffer, raising and lowering his head in a pool of his own blood. The sealer finally arrived and then clubbed the wounded seal just once before impaling him on a metal hook and dragging him away—without ensuring the seal was even unconscious.

It is this evidence that is ending Canada’s commercial seal slaughter.

How many Canadian politicians can continue to stomach the cruelty we witness out here? How many will continue to try to claim the slaughter is humane in the face of our irrefutable evidence of abuse, year after year?

The ProtectSeals team will not let them do it. We will expose the cruelty on these ice floes to the world.

April 8, 2010

The slaughter begins

"We've just seen the first seals being killed. It's awful ... some of the worst killing I've seen. Baby seals are being shot and clubbed and are suffering horribly ..."

Read a blog entry for more.

April 8, 2010

Stand with us

by Rebecca Aldworth

Every year the ProtectSeals team faces extreme weather conditions as we bear witness to Canada's commercial seal slaughter. This year is no different.

Separated by freezing fog from the men who are slaughtering defenseless seals, our helicopter is slowly making its way north.

This is one of the worst parts of documenting the seal slaughter ... the knowledge that the killing could have begun, and there is nothing we can do except try to get it on film to share with the world.

Today marks my 12th year in a row observing this bloodbath. Every year that I come to this horrible place of slaughter I pray it will be my last, and I know you must feel exactly the same.

But long ago, I made a promise to the seals. As I watched a bloody club smash into the skull of a crying pup, I pledged that I would not stop—not for a second—until we shut this abomination down forever. I have not forgotten that pledge, and I never will.

We will fight for the baby seals until we have won. In this, their darkest hour, we will be there. And I promise them—and you—that we will win. Together, we will bring this bloody industry to a final end.

Thank you for standing with the ProtectSeals team. As we fly through the rain and fog toward the sealing boats, I know we’re not here alone ... each and every one of you reading this is here with us in the fight to save the seals.

April 7, 2010

A last day of innocence

by Rebecca Aldworth

I'm heading back from flying over the "front"—the waters northeast of Newfoundland. There, sealing boats are working through the sparse ice, on a deadly path to where the baby seals are blissfully feeding from their mothers until they have the strength to swim, unaware of the approaching danger.

I feel the familiar despair I always do when I see the first vessels bound for the hunt—a confirmation that my last hope that the killing might not happen, that the baby seals might be spared this year, is gone.

I know what we are about to witness, and it is breaking my heart. We have done everything we can to prevent this killing, but it has not yet been enough. The ProtectSeals team is silent as our plane returns to our base.

But I know something else. I know that we are shutting the sealers down. I can tell by the verbal attacks sealing industry representatives make against those trying to save the seals. I can see it in the blustering of Canadian parliamentarians, trying to outdo each other in their empty gestures in support of sealing. And I can see it in the lack of sealers out here today. In this area, hundreds of sealing vessels usually participate in the killing. But this year, only 23 boats have hailed out so far.

The reason for their lack of enthusiasm: the top seal fur processor in Canada is not buying seal skins this year. And while one other company is, it is purchasing far, far fewer pelts than usual. Our efforts to close global markets for seal fur are working, and soon, I know that seals will be worth more alive than dead. This is, afterall, one of nature’s greatest animal concentrations.

In the meantime, we'll be here, gathering the evidence that is putting this outdated industry out of business. The commercial seal hunt off Newfoundland’s coast opens half an hour before dawn tomorrow. We are ready. Please stand with us as we work to stop Canada's commercial seal slaughter forever.

April 6, 2010

Countdown begins

by Rebecca Aldworth

The ProtectSeals team has arrived in Newfoundland, Canada—the heart of sealing country—to document the commercial seal slaughter set to open there on April 8th.

As we flew in yesterday over the mountains, my heart sank. Each year I come here it is the same—the stunning beauty of this place contrasts so sharply with the bloody violence we are about to see. We are preparing to bear witness to the word’s largest and most atrocious slaughter of marine mammals, and the thought is devastating.

This year will be harder to witness than most.

2010 has seen the lowest sea ice formation on record off of Canada’s east coast, a disaster for the ice-breeding seals who are the target of the commercial seal hunt. In some key seal birthing areas, virtually no ice formed. In others, the ice that did form melted before the pups were able to survive in open water.

There have been reports of starving seal pups on beaches throughout Canada’s Atlantic Provinces, tragic victims of their mothers’ desperate attempts to give birth on land. Today, we surveyed the rocky beaches of the west coast of Newfoundland and found many dead whitecoats. This heartbreaking scene was hard enough to bear, but even harder knowing the 2010 commercial seal slaughter will proceed.

Unmoved by the mass seal pup mortalities we are witnessing, the Canadian government has raised the seal quota by 50,000. This year, sealers will be allowed to slaughter 388,200 seals—one of the highest quotas in Canadian history. Unbelievably, the few seal pups who have survived the ice disaster are now about to be beaten and shot to death for their fur.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

A recent poll conducted by a leading Canadian polling firm Ipsos Reid reveals that fully half of Newfoundland sealers holding an opinion support a federal buyout of the commercial sealing industry. Such a plan would involve the federal government compensating fishermen for their sealing licenses, and investing in economic alternatives in communities involved. There is every reason for sealers to support such a plan.

Sealers are commercial fishermen, who earn, on average, less than five percent of their annual incomes from killing seals. In contrast to the small amount it contributes, the seal hunt is dangerous, difficult work, resulting in major damage to fishing vessels and injuries to crews in most years. As fishermen, sealers are feeling the impact of a boycott of Canadian seafood that will continue until the seal hunt has ended. Globally, the sealing industry is coming to an end, with the EU banning its trade in seal products and Russia ending its commercial seal hunt last year. The impacts of climate change on ice breeding seal populations make the future of commercial sealing even more questionable.

For too long, those Canadian parliamentarians have had to choose between sealers and the overwhelming majority of Canadians who want the seal hunt to end. A federal sealing industry buyout, with broad support in the Newfoundland sealing industry, could offer a new way forward.

As we prepare for what we are about to see in the coming days, we can only hope that the Canadian government will seize this opportunity and move Canada beyond commercial sealing.

Rebecca Aldworth is executive director of Humane Society International/Canada.