[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 269 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 269
Urging the Government of Canada to end the commercial seal hunt that
opened on November 15, 2003.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 20, 2003
Mr. Levin (for himself and Ms. Collins, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Reed, Mr.
Lautenberg, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Jeffords, and Mr. Kennedy)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Urging the Government of Canada to end the commercial seal hunt that
opened on November 15, 2003.
Whereas on November 15, 2003, the Government of Canada opened a commercial hunt
on seals in the waters off the east coast of Canada;
Whereas an international outcry regarding the plight of the seals hunted in
Canada resulted in the 1983 ban by the European Union of whitecoat and
blueback seal skins, and the subsequent collapse of the commercial seal
hunt in Canada;
Whereas the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) bars
the import into the United States of any seal products;
Whereas in February 2003, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada
authorized the highest quota for harp seals in Canadian history,
allowing nearly 1,000,000 seals to be killed over a 3-year period;
Whereas harp seal pups can be legally hunted in Canada as soon as they have
begun to molt their white coats at approximately 12 days of age;
Whereas 97 percent of the seals culled in the 2003 slaughter were pups between
just 12 days and 12 weeks of age, most of which had not yet eaten their
first solid meal or learned to swim;
Whereas a 2001 report by an independent team of veterinarians invited to observe
the hunt by the International Fund for Animal Welfare concluded that the
seal hunt failed to comply with basic animal welfare regulations in
Canada and that governmental regulations regarding humane killing were
not being respected or enforced;
Whereas the 2001 veterinary report concluded that as many as 42 percent of the
seals studied were likely skinned while alive and conscious;
Whereas the commercial slaughter of seals in the Northwest Atlantic is
inherently cruel, whether the killing is conducted by clubbing or by
shooting;
Whereas many seals are shot in the course of the hunt, but escape beneath the
ice where they die slowly and are never recovered, and these seals are
not counted in official kill statistics, making the actual kill level
far higher than the level that is reported;
Whereas the commercial hunt for harp and hooded seals is not conducted by
indigenous peoples of Canada, but is a commercial slaughter carried out
by nonnative people from the East Coast of Canada for seal fur, oil, and
penises (used as aphrodisiacs in some Asian markets);
Whereas the fishing and sealing industries in Canada continue to justify the
expanded seal hunt on the grounds that the seals in the Northwest
Atlantic are preventing the recovery of cod stocks, despite the lack of
any credible scientific evidence to support this claim;
Whereas 2 Canadian Government marine scientists reported in 1994 that the true
cause of cod depletion in the North Atlantic was over-fishing, and the
consensus among the international scientific community is that seals are
not responsible for the collapse of cod stocks;
Whereas harp and hooded seals are a vital part of the complex ecosystem of the
Northwest Atlantic, and because the seals consume predators of
commercial cod stocks, removing the seals might actually inhibit
recovery of cod stocks;
Whereas certain ministries of the Government of Canada have stated clearly that
there is no evidence that killing seals will help groundfish stocks to
recover; and
Whereas the persistence of this cruel and needless commercial hunt is
inconsistent with the well-earned international reputation of Canada:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate urges the Government of Canada to end the
commercial hunt on seals that opened in the waters off the east coast
of Canada on November 15, 2003.
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