news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3618901.stm
Canadas largest seal cull for more than 50 years is taking place despite protests by environmentalists and animal rights groups. The government is allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed, arguing that the campaign is both ecologically sound and economically justified. Protests helped end the hunting of young seals for their pelts off Canadas east coast 25 years ago. Some activists say their efforts to report this cull are being blocked. Sealers have been making their way out to ice floes off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador for the annual hunt. Under new guidelines, most seals are meant to be shot and not clubbed to death in a bid to make the killing more humane. Around 140,000 seals are expected to be slaughtered by the end of Tuesday. Fish stocks The seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador withered 25 years ago as images of hunters clubbing infant seals horrified TV viewers across the world.
The US banned imports of seal products in 1972 and the EU followed suit a decade later with a ban on white pelt imports taken from the youngest babies. As a result, the Canadian government reduced quotas for seal hunting to as low as 15,000 annually - mainly for meat and local handicraft. Canada increased the quotas last year, allowing a million seals to be killed over the space of three years. Canadian Natural Resources Minister John Efford said many claims about the hunt were simply wrong. He argued that the seal population was exploding - with an estimated 52 million harp seals in the North Atlantic at present - and commercial fish stocks were vanishing. Mr Efford added that the cull was important for the local economy during a traditionally slow economic time of the year. Permits delayed The Canadian tourism commission admitted last week it was keeping an eye open for an international backlash should the protests gather strength. One campaigning group, the US-based Humane Society, has been taking full-page adverts in prominent American newspapers to urge a travel boycott against Canada.
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