The World : Harp Seals Hunted Again

Canada’s controversial seal hunt, halted for five years by protests from animal lovers, resumed when a single Canadian ship set sail for the ice floes off Labrador, where thousands of female harp seals arrive at this time of year to give birth. However, the hunters are armed with rifles, not the clubs once used to kill the animals, and they have promised not to kill the newborn seals. Animal rights activists tried to track the ship, but heavy fog forced them to cancel their flight. Scenes of the pups being killed by men wielding clubs spurred the protests, which led to a ban on seal product imports by many European nations.