The Canadian seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth.  More than one million baby seals have been killed for their fur during the past five years.

Flying in the face of the best available science and common sense, Canada will this year allow seal hunters to kill 388,200 harp, grey and hooded seals, an increase of 50,000 from 2009. Most of these will be just days or weeks old, and forced to endure incomprehensible cruelty. The last time this many seals were killed, the harp seal population was reduced by as much as two thirds within a decade.

Independent scientists have warned that reckless kill levels authorised by the Canadian government, paired with the impacts of climate change on the ice dependent harp seals, poses a serious threat to the survival of harp seal populations. This year, sea ice simply didn't form in key seal birthing areas. For ice breeding harp seals, it is a disaster. When the sea ice doesn't form, many mothers are often forced to abort their pups in the water. When the ice that does form is too thin and fragile, pups are forced into the open water before they are old enough to survive there.