(note these are most if not all are baby seals)
Sea Shepherd is opposed to this annual "hunt". To the Sea Shepherds its not a hunt because the sealers simply walk up to the seals who have no means of escaping or defending themselves and bash the seals on the head or shoot them. The Sea Shepherds want to bring this to a stop. They and many other organizations have started an international boycott of all Canadian sea food as means to strip the commercial seal hunt of all economic value and force it, by financial means, to end.
Sea Shepherd believes the following about the Canadian seal slaughter:
- The slaughter of seals is incredibly cruel (a post mortem survey has shown that 42% of these babies are skinned alive)
- It is a threat to the survival of the species
- It is a threat to the survival of cod
- It is a slaughter done mainly for unessential, vanity, and luxury items, and therefore, is unnecessary
- It is unethical to slaughter newborn seal pups (About 95% of the seals to be slaughtered are babies less than four weeks old)
