If only commercial seal hunting was just done by the First Nations. Commercial seal hunters exploit whatever they can to justify the destruction of the seals. So yeah, let's call the opponents "racists" and pretend like they're not doing anything about factory farming or the treatment of pigs, cows, and chickens.
That report got a lot of attention, especially because they put this caveat in it "“The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not constitute an official position of the CVMA." Which means it isn't speaking for Canadian veterinary professionals. The people who cite your "study" are the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the leading defenders of the slaughter and skinning of seals. Even in your report, the Dauost report, it said:
"
• Daoust et al. note that in 87% of the 116 cases examined,
sealers “failed to palpate the skull or check the corneal reflex before proceeding to hook or bleed the seal or go to
another seal.”
"What the veterinarians reported was this: In 13 (17%) of
the 76 carcasses examined, there were no detectable lesions of
the skull, leading to the conclusion that these seals had been
skinned while conscious. An additional 19 (25%) seal
carcasses exhibited minimal to moderate skull fractures
indicative of “a decreased level of consciousness” but probably
not unconsciousness. Combined, these figures are the source
of the claim that up to 42% of the 76 seals examined may well
have been skinned while conscious. The remaining 58% of the
seals examined exhibited extensive fractures that would have
been associated with some level of unconsciousness"
"
In total then, both Daoust et al. and the IFAW observers
agreed that of 116 interactions between harp seals and sealers
videotaped during the 2001 hunt, there were:
• 26 (22.4%) definite, questionable or possible violations,
where seals were not rendered unconscious prior to hooking or skinning.
• An additional 2 (1.7%) were inconclusive"
Furthermore, another report indicates that:
"Burdon et al.’s observations from the videos of the 1998-
2000 hunts may be summarized briefly as follows (p. 9 +
Appendices 3 -5):
• 179 seals were observed hunted. Ninety-six of these were
shot; 56 were shot or clubbed; 19 were clubbed or gaffed
[Note: neither gaffs nor boat hooks are legal instruments
for killing seals in Canada], and 8 were killed by unknown
means.
• In 79% of cases, sealers did not check for a corneal reflex
indicating that many of these seals potentially could have
been skinned or hooked alive.
• Only 6% were bled immediately after being struck.
• 72 (40%) seals were shot or clubbed and left to suffer.
• At least 30 seals were hooked while still alive.
• At least 5 were bled alive.
• At least 4 were skinned alive.
"
In summary, IFAW’s observers detected 55 putative instances
where animals were still conscious after being shot or clubbed,
or where live seals were hooked, bled, skinned alive, or struck
and lost. Daoust et al. disagreed with the interpretation in 27
of these instances, but were unable to reject the interpretation in
the remaining 28 instances. In other words, there was
agreement that up to 24.1% of 116 pups were not killed
humanely, or in a manner consistent with Canada’s Marine
Mammal Regulations"
http://www.ifaw.org/Publications/Program_Publications/Seals/asset_upload_file432_12084.pdf
"
Coincidentally or not, these figures are not very different
from the data provided in Burdon et al. from post-mortem
examination of skulls from seals killed in the hunt. If their
results are in any way representative of the entire hunt, they
would suggest that somewhere between 41,000 and 100,000+
animals are skinned while still conscious.
Together, the two reports also document that a number of
animals each year are hooked and dragged across the ice while
still conscious and some of these are still alive by the time they
reach the decks of sealing vessels. "
http://www.ifaw.org/Publications/Program_Publications/Seals/asset_upload_file432_12084.pdf
DiplomacyCast 11 (Podcast)
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