Seal pups and puppy dogs:
It’s more than a question of humane killing
Imagine a litter of newly weaned golden retriever puppies frolicking in a public park. Two men approach, one with a rifle, the other with a baseball bat. They start shooting and clubbing the animals, killing some instantly and wounding others. When all the puppies have been stopped in their tracks, the man with the bat goes around and clubs any that remain alive. The incident is captured on a bystander’s cell phone. The story leads on the television news. Imagine the public outcry.
Now, move into the real world. Newly weaned harp seal pups lie on ice off the East coast of Canada, a public space of a different kind. Men with rifles and steel-spiked clubs called hakapiks approach. They start shooting and clubbing the young seals. Some are killed instantly, others are wounded. Some of the wounded slip into the water where they almost certainly die. Others lie on the ice bleeding from their injuries, until a sealer returns to dispatch them with skull-crushing blows to the head. The scene is captured on video.
In this case, however, television stations do not rush to show the footage. Most refuse to air it because it would offend public sensibilities, especially during the suppertime news hour. The disturbing images are posted on the Internet, but who really wants to watch them? These days, public outrage is muted (many believing that commercial sealing ended years ago), except for the protests of individuals and advocacy groups who are actively campaigning against commercial sealing. And the Canadian government, Canadian politicians of all stripes, and even the odd Canadian government scientist, remain comfortable denying reality and misrepresenting the observers’ evidence, claiming that Canada’s commercial seal hunt – the largest remaining commercial seal hunt in the world – is “humane”.
These thoughts were evoked most recently during a hearing on Trade in Seal Species, in Brussels. The hearing was organized by the European Parliamentary Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, in January 2009, as part of its deliberations over the European Commission’s proposed ban on trade in seal products within the European Union. A vote on that proposal is anticipated on 1 April, about the same time that Canada’s 2009 commercial seal slaughter is slated to begin. But before either of those events happen, it is perhaps time to acknowledge frankly that the sealing controversy is not just a debate about humane killing or, for that matter, about conservation, sustainable use, economic necessity, taxpayer-funded subsidies or precautionary management. Ultimately, it is a political debate grounded in ethics.
In an evolutionary sense, the puppies and the seal pups referred to above are closely related cousins. They are both carnivores; they have similar, well developed nervous systems; and they have complex social behaviour. The only major differences are that the ancestors of golden retrievers remained on land and were eventually domesticated by humans, whereas the seals’ ancestors ventured back into the sea more than 20 million years ago and remained wild.
If evolutionary relationships guided our treatment of animals modern society would no longer tolerate commercial sealing that targets newly weaned pups, any more than it would tolerate the indiscriminate killing of golden retriever puppies. But obviously, evolutionary relationships rarely dictate ethical choices.
Nonetheless, dogs and seals, like humans, think, feel and relate. Not in the same ways we do, but in ways that are appropriate to their kind. Like us, dogs and seals also have an individual worth independent of the use anyone might have for them. Ethicists call this “intrinsic value”. That wildlife species have intrinsic value is already recognized in a number of national wildlife policy documents (including, ironically, Canada) and international conservation agreements.
The crucial point is this: seals are not simply government property or a “natural resource” to do with as we please. Seals are sentient creatures that we ought to treat with care and respect. This means thinking beyond whether a particular killing technique is humane or not. It means, minimally, considering the well-being of seals as individuals, as well as populations, and as functional components of marine ecosystems. It also means asking the more fundamental question. Is Canada’s or any other commercial seal hunt morally defensible in the 21st century?
David Lavigne & William Lynn
Dr David Lavigne has studied harp seals and Canada’s commercial seal hunt for 40 years. A former zoology professor, he is currently science advisor to IFAW – the International Fund for Animal Welfare (www.ifaw.org). In 2007, he was a member of the EFSA Working Group on the Animal Welfare Aspects of Killing and Skinning Seals. He appeared as an invited expert at the January hearing on Trade of Seal Products, mentioned in the article.
Dr William Lynn is a visiting professor in Environmental Studies, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, and senior ethics advisor of Practical Ethics (www.practicalethics.net).