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Ottawa changes seal hunt rules

The Canadian Press
December 27, 2008 at 5:36 PM EST

OTTAWA - The federal government is putting in place new rules to ensure seals are dead before skinning in an effort to placate the concerns of animal welfare groups and the European Union.
The rule changes will also ensure that older seals - which comprise only a small fraction of those harvested - are shot with a firearm rather than clubbed to death with the traditional hakapik.
The changes are designed to put a more humane face on the hunt in an effort to forestall a proposed European Union ban on seal products.
In future, the skulls of seals must be crushed and the animals bled for a full minute before they are skinned. And the federal government plans to beef up enforcement - including using helicopter-mounted surveillance cameras.
Notification of changes to the Marine Mammal Regulations were quietly posted in the Canada Gazette without government fanfare.