Carnage on the Ice?

Text: Associated Press
Images: AP/Jonathan Hayward, CP

(AP) - Animal rights activists call it barbaric. The Canadian government says it brings much-needed income to coastal communities. It is the world's largest seal hunt. Armed with clubs, rifles and spears, sealers are expected to kill more than 300,000 seal pups by May 15. The hunt began Tuesday, March 29.

Sealers and government officials who monitor the hunt insist the pups die instantly, under strict guidelines. Others tell a different story.

"We've seen seals that were moving around and breathing, that have been left in these piles, some left conscious and crawling,'' said Rebecca Aldworth, a native Newfoundlander who has observed the seal hunt for the past six years and a member of the Humane Society of the United States.

Above, a harp seal looks at the remains of other seals during the first day of the 2005 hunt on an ice floe in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Prince Edward Island, Canada. More pictures below. Full Story