Cap-aux-Meules, Canada
The commercial hunt for baby harp seals has undergone a quiet revival in Canada, The New York Times reported this week. Sales of seal skins collapsed in the 1980s, after animal-rights activists campaigned against seal hunting by airing films of men clubbing white-coated pups to death in the snow. The U.S. and Europe banned seal-fur imports, and Canada sharply limited the hunt. This year the Canadian government decided to allow the killing of 350,000 baby seals, the most in 50 years. The boom has been fueled by new markets in Russia and Poland. Activists responded with a new campaign featuring T-shirts saying, “Club Sandwiches, Not Seals.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
'There is a lot riding on the deal for both sides'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Pharaoh's tomb discovered for first time in 100 yearsSpeed Read This is the first burial chamber of a pharaoh unearthed since Tutankhamun in 1922
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthroughSpeed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
