Environmental groups on Saturday condemned Canada’s decision to boost its annual quota for seal hunting, warning that with an expected European ban on any seal products the increase makes little sense.
On Friday, the Canadian government authorized the hike in seal killing to 280,000 on the Atlantic seaboard, amounting to around one-third of the number killed annually worldwide.
The figure is up 5,000 from a year earlier and up 10,000 from 2007. The new quota is still 55,000 less than in 2006.
“This quota flies in the face of the best available science and common sense,” said Rebecca Aldworth, director of the Canadian branch of the Humane Society.
“The last time Canada allowed this many seals to be killed, the harp seal population was reduced by as much as two-thirds within a decade,” she said in a statement.
European animal rights group Equanimal says more than 40 percent of the seals killed last year were still alive when they were skinned.
Equanimal has said it wants to pressure the European Parliament on the issue, as it is due to decide next month whether to impose a complete ban on seal products in the 27-member bloc.
The new quota for the “dangerous, dead-end industry” that is the seal hunt is “completely indefensible,” said Sheryl Fink, senior researcher at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
“It’s not supported by markets, it’s not supported by the DFO’s [Department of Fisheries and Oceans] own management plan and it’s certainly not going to be supported by the majority of Canadians,” she said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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