“When all the beasts are gone,

Man will die from a great loneliness of spirit;

For whatever happens to the beasts,

Will also happen to the man.”

  Chief Seattle

Despite international objections and protests

Concerning new severe ice floe melt for seals

Yesterday the first infant seal pups were killed

Now the ice becomes a blood-stained killing field

The Canadian government obviously cares little about this

And soon more than a quarter million of these seals will die

I just cannot understand modern mankind’s disregard for life

Slaughtering just weeks old infants for fur should be despised

Many of the seals that will now soon be hideously clubbed and shot

Will be viciously skinned alive while still crying out in agonizing pain

Modern man has lost all regard for God’s mandate to be earth’s stewards

And every single human alive today should now hang our heads in shame

As you read this, baby harp seals are being clubbed to death and shot from boats this morning in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, despite ever mounting international outrage and protest, and new alarming concerns about global warming.

Already this spring, disappearing ice caused by unusually warm weather has devastated the resident harp seal population.  It's estimated that more than a quarter of the newly born seal pups have already died.

Severe climate change has turned the ice in Canada's Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence to slush weeks earlier than usual, so few young seals were even to be seen as the annual Canadian harp seal hunt opened yesterday.

Mother seals could not climb onto solid ice to give birth this spring and were thus forced to give birth at sea, where thousands of their pups have already drowned.

And even if they did survive their birth, newborn seals cannot swim their first few weeks of life needing a foothold of solid ice, so thousands more pups have now perished in the icy slush.

Conservationists from around the world had pleaded with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to call a halt to this year's seal hunt, but despite serious concern expressed about the softening ice and the thousands of drowning pups, the hunt has opened on schedule.

"We've noticed that the ice over the past four or five years has been deteriorating, and this year it's giving us some concern," said DFO spokesman Phil Jenkins. "We're seeing poor ice conditions. So, we can expect a higher than average mortality of seal pups."

 And yet, today, this very morning, the young seal pup survivors still clinging to life are unbelievably still being targeted in the largest slaughter of marine mammals still existing on this planet.

Once again, I am extremely ashamed of my species, and I now see little hope for our redemption, or for the future of any animal species on this planet.

If we could not stop this particularly horrendous mass animal slaughter, what hope remains for the rest of earth’s animal kingdom?

These modern day Canadian seal hunters only want seal fur.  Thousands of skinless baby seal carcasses will be left out on the icy slush to rot, just as thousands of American buffalo carcasses were left out on the American prairie to rot in the 1800s – and very sadly today, very few buffalo remain – and the ones remaining - have already been targeted for modern day slaughter.

From beasts we scorn as soulless,
In forest, sea, melting ice floe, and den,
The cry goes up to the heavens to witness,
The horrendous soullessness of modern men.