It appears that 280,000 slaughtered harp seals per year was not enough as Canada’s fisheries minister, Gail Shea, announced that the harp seal quota has been raised to 330,000.

Officials claim the increase in the quota was prompted due to a growing seal population in the prime hunting waters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in waters northeast of Newfoundland.

In a prepared statement, Shea also expressed the Canadian government’s continued support for seal hunters. "This government is united in its support of the thousands of coastal Canadian sealers who rely on the seal hunt for their livelihood."

In fact so united that according to the Humane Society of the United States of America (HSUS) the Canadian government has subsidized the hunt at a tune of $20 million from 1995-2001.

Considering the primary reason for the hunt is to obtain seal fur for fashion, the activities surrounding the slaughter seem especially cruel.

Under law, hunters are allowed to kill pups as young as 12 days old and the methods of the slaughter can include shooting, clubbing and the utilization of hakapiks—clubs with metal hooks attached on their ends. Many of the young seals—98 percent slaughtered are younger than three months of age—are skinned while they are still conscious. In 42-percent of cases studied by independent veterinarians in 2001, the pups were still alive during the skinning process.

HSUS reports that nearly 1 million seals have been killed over the past three years alone.

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