My name is Rebecca Aldworth. I am the director of Canadian wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States.
The HSUS is the world's largest animal protection group. We have nearly 10 million members and constituents around the world, and we work internationally through Humane Society International.
HSUS is a multi-issue animal protection group. That means we work on a variety of issues, from the conditions for animals on factory farms to laboratories, puppy mills, cruel animal-fighting, and of course the protection of marine mammals and the ending of the fur trade.
The campaign to end the commercial seal hunt in Canada is actually one of our most prominent campaigns right now. We have worked for many years to put a final end to it.
I want to say that I was very conflicted about appearing here today. It's my opinion that this committee is not impartial when it comes to the issue of the commercial seal hunt. Based on attendance at previous hearings such as this and previous reports from this committee, it's my belief that the outcome of this committee hearing on the seal hunt is actually predetermined. But my colleagues tell me I'm being cynical, and for that reason, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a few things about the commercial seal hunt from my perspective.
I have observed the commercial seal hunt in Canada for eight years at close range. I've observed it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and I've observed it in the “Front”, which is northeast of Newfoundland. I, for that reason, have some experience, I think, in the issues regarding cruelty, and because I've studied this issue for 10 years, I have some knowledge about the economics of the commercial seal hunt and the various issues that pertain to commercial sealing in Canada.
I would like to talk just briefly about a few myths that I feel have been perpetuated in this committee and by this committee. I am going to go through these very quickly, as we all know we don't have much time here, so please bear with me.
The first issue is baby seals. Dr. Lavigne talked about it quite briefly, but I also want to touch on it. Canadian government kill reports show clearly that 97% of the seals killed in the past five years have been pups under the age of three months. The majority have been under one month of age at the time of slaughter.
When these animals are killed—and this is personal observation—many are not yet swimming and many are not yet eating solid food. They have literally no escape from the hunters and they're completely defenceless.
You can call them pups, you can call them juvenile seals, you can call them infants. I call them baby seals, because that's what I call a baby elephant or a baby hippopotamus or any other kind of wildlife. To me, they're baby seals, and anybody who's been on the ice floes with them would agree.
I want to talk about the issue—and this is a disgusting lie that has been stated by our government representatives repeatedly in recent months and I'm appalled as a Canadian that you're doing it—the concept that the footage that we're showing in Europe and elsewhere on our TV stations and on our websites is 20 years out of date. I was there over the past years when most of this footage was filmed. There is not one group out there using out-of-date footage. The footage that is being shown is from the last couple of seal hunts in Canada.
I'm going to show you some of it today, because I want you to see what the commercial seal hunt looks like. I would be willing to hazard a guess that many people in this room have never attended the commercial seal hunt themselves. I have for eight years.
I was appalled to hear members of this committee tell the European delegation last month that this is the most humane hunt in the world. I have been prevented by Canadian law and our unconstitutional marine mammal regulations from intervening as I have watched conscious seal pups stabbed with boat hooks and dragged across the ice floes. I have watched dead and dying animals thrown together in stockpiles. I have had to stand by and watch while a three-week-old seal pup choked to death on her own blood for 90 minutes. This is something I see routinely at the commercial seal hunt. I see wounded animals left to suffer, seals that are shot, some of them for up to eight minutes in open water.
I've seen this each and every year, and I've seen things that no human being should have to observe, not to mention the sealers themselves. I've seen the working conditions on the ice floes for the sealers, the people you claim to be here to defend. Some of these people are in their fifties and sixties. They're running across the ice floes, working in extreme weather conditions as quickly as possible. It's dehumanizing work for them and it's really dangerous. There is a reason that insurance companies put a $250,000 deductible on the boats when they go up there in those ice floes.
Read the news clippings. Boats get trapped in the ice every year. People have to be airlifted out of the hunt. This is a dangerous hunt for the people involved.
I want to talk to you a little bit about the idea of seals and fish. This is another myth that I hear perpetuated in this committee: that if we don't kill the seals, all the fish stocks will continue to decline and there will be no hope for recovery.
I want to make note of the fact that even the Magdalen Island sealers who were here in this room spoke to me in the hallway and admitted that seals had no role in the collapse of the cod fishery or the groundfish fisheries. Speak to fishermen. They will tell you what caused the collapse. It was mismanagement by the federal government.
I believe the people in this room have political careers that depend on scapegoating seals for fisheries mismanagement. For that reason, we're going to see in your report a lot of claims about seals negatively impacting fish stocks even though the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' own science shows that this is not the case.
I want to again talk very briefly about the humane aspects of the hunt, but to do that I would like leave from this room to show some footage. I think it's important, given that you have heard repeated claims that this footage is out of date or doctored or out of context. I'd like to explain some of the things that we see each and every year at the commercial seal hunt.
Is that okay, Mr. Chairman?