Our largest program area in the Humane Society of the United States is factory farming. So I would state that clearly.
I guess I have three points in answer to you.
First, of course we support any effort that will make this hunt more humane. But we believe, as Dr. Mary Richardson does--she's a Canadian veterinary expert in humane slaughter techniques--that this hunt is inherently inhumane. It can never be made humane according to Canadian standards of humane slaughter because of where it operates and how fast it has to operate. So yes, we support any effort to make it more humane, but we don't believe it can be made acceptably humane.
This is not a laboratory setting, nor is it an abattoir. This hunt occurs far offshore, on unstable ice floes, in extreme weather conditions. I would, I guess, argue in terms of whether we work to make it more humane. There is a reason we submit this footage to Fisheries and Oceans Canada year after year. It's because we want it to crack down on the worst offenders out there. Unfortunately, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in my experience, has not lived up to that task. That's why, having been involved in submitting over 700 instances just like these, just as shocking as these, just as heart-wrenching as these, we still have not seen a single charge laid by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. So yes, I certainly do support making the hunt more humane in any way it can be. But no, I don't believe it ever can be made humane.
I would also argue that this is not a hunt for food. This is a hunt that produces fur coats. The Canadian government itself—Ken Jones—describes this as primarily a fur hunt. The carcasses are dumped out there on the ice floes. Blubber is a by-product of the fur trade. This is a hunt for skins that are used in the fashion industry.