- Namibian annual seal massacre -

Sunday 1 July 2012

- Namibian annual seal massacre -

Today heralds the opening of the Namibian
seal slaughter........

In Johannesburg, my family and I joined in one of many global protest marches
to create awareness.

Every year starting July 1st, it is the same heart breaking story.The powers that
be in Namibia give their blessing to start the largest and cruelest seal slaughter
in the world. Ironically this massacre happens in a nature reserve!
Up to 85,000 seal pups and 6,000-7,000 male animals are herded for slaughter.
Young pups still trying to grow from their mother’s sweet milk are mercilessly hit
over their heads and all over their tiny bodies. (This is called seal clubbing).
Then, whether they are alive or dead, they are stabbed and slashed open with
knives - mother’s milk running from their mouths and noses. The bulls are then
shot through the head with a gun. It is a horrendously cruel slaughter, targeting
babies still nursing their mothers' milk. The nursing young are the primary target,
as their fur is the most valuable. Older bulls are the secondary target, as seal
penis is still popular in Asia as an aphrodisiac.

The pups are bludgeoned with clubs and then stabbed through the chest or heart
and left to die a slow and agonizing death.
The larger bulls are shot. At Cape Cross, seal slaughter and seal watching
intertwine in a sickening mockery of eco-tourism. Hunters descend on the herd at
dawn, separating the nursing babies from the mothers, rounding them up and
butchering them in front of each other. At 10:00 a.m. the carnage is cleaned up,
the blood is covered with more sand and tourists are let in to admire the seals in
their natural habitat - the survivors from that morning's slaughter!!