End to baby Harp Seal slaughter

BY JEREMY BROWN

In a long-awaited move, Russia will prevent the hunting of Harp Seals less than a month old, known as ‘whitecoats’.
On March 5, Oleg Trutnev, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources, tabled a letter requesting the government end the hunt.
Masha Vorontsova, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Russia, welcomed the decision. ‘We are continuing to appeal to Russia, Canada and Norway to end their cruel hunts for harp seals once and for all,’ Vorontsova said. ‘These hunts are unnecessary – they are merely supporting the trade in fur used for non-essential fashion items such as coats, trimmings and hats.’
High profile fashion houses such as Birger Christensen (Copenhagen), Prada (Milan), Dolce & Gabbana (Milano), Gucci (New York), Versace (Milan) are the main buyers of seal pelts. It takes the pelt from 10 or more ‘whitecoats’ to make a fur coat.
The Harp Seal hunt takes place on the polar ice in winter and early spring in the northern hemisphere. Russia, Canada and Norway all have large commercial seal hunts; in the last season Canadian sealers alone killed over 200,000 animals, of which the majority were ‘whitecoats’.
The hunt has provoked condemnation for more than 20 years, but the wild weather and the remoteness of areas where the slaughter take place makes it difficult for government regulatory bodies to ensure allocations are not exceeded, and hard for activists and observers to document what is going on.