Danish Animal Protectionist Support
It makes sense that Norway is to resume the hunt of seal pups for scientific purposes in order to find out the best possible
means of killing them. The most important thing is that the seal pups are killed humanely, and that one makes allowances
for the stock, says Anette Weber , veterinary consultant to Dyrenes Beskyttelse, the Danish society for the prevention
of cruelty to animals, to the Ritzaus news agency. The Society has no objection to sealing in principle, and is, for instance,
engaged in a dialogue with the Greenland Home Rule government on the sealing issue. The seal seldom suffer during
the hunt, as the hunters almost always make the kill with their first shot. Furthermore, the pusa hispida stock is so big that
it is affecting the fisheries, Anette Weber explained.
On the other hand, the Society has been concerned about the number of seals drowned in fishing nets. And furthermore,
they have protested about the killing methods whereby the hunter goes out onto the ice and slaughters the seal pups by
a blow to the head with a club, Ritzaus reports.
Norwegian Environmentalist Support
The stocks are big enough to sustain a harvest, and from an ecological standpoint, we have no objections against the
resumption of the harvest of weaned seal pups, says Stein Malkenes, leader of Norway’s biggest conservationist organ-
isation, Norges Naturvernforbund, to the Norwegian media.
Brigitte Bardot Protests
A number of animal protection organisations have launched protests against the hunt of weaned seal pups. The Brigitte
Bardot Foundation arranged a demonstration outside the Norwegian Embassy in Paris and has announced a consumer
boycott of Norwegian products. According to the Norwegian Export Council’s office in Paris, however, this has so far not
had any effect.
Eurogroup for AnimalWelfare Condemns
A meeting of the member organisations of the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare strongly denounced Norway for its recent
decision to resume the slaughter of seal pups for supposedly scientific purposes." "International wildlife experts have called
this pretence an insult to common sense, says the March 19th press release from the Eurogroup.