Are seal hunting practices “inherently inhumane,” or cruel – are seals skinned alive?
Employed properly, the hunting methods of Canadian professional sealers are effective and in accordance with established practices of animal welfare, as recommended by the Independent Veterinarians’ Working Group (IVWG 2005). In Canada, professional sealers are required by the Marine Mammal Regulations to follow the IVWG recommended “3-step process” for each seal they kill. The first step requires the animal to be stunned using a regulation weapon, be it a high powered rifle, hakapik or club. As soon as possible after step 1, the sealer is required to “palpate”, or feel the animal’s skull to ensure that it is completely crushed, meaning the animal has been rendered irreversibly unconscious. Step 3 is bleeding, to ensure that the animal is biologically dead, in addition to being brain dead. Animal rights campaigners sometimes capture footage of violations to these regulations, and often show edited footage where they cut away without portraying the entire sequence. Despite their suggest
