BOSTON: It’s not an easy movie to watch: Hunters clubbing seals to death and bloodying the otherwise pristine ice of the Canadian Arctic.
But for the Cape Cod-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, “Huntwatch” — a new documentary about the fight to end commercial seal hunts — is a story that needs to be told.
The film , which premieres next month on Discovery, very nearly was doomed to oblivion. It includes grainy footage that had languished for nearly five decades in the basement of the group’s global headquarters in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts.
“We really just want people to watch the film, look at all sides of the issue, and decide if this hunt still should be happening,” said IFAW spokeswoman Kerry Branon, a co-producer on the film.
Indigenous people still harvest seals for food in Canada, but the bloody slaughters chronicled in “Huntwatch” involve white hunters looking to cash in on the pelts of young harp seals and provide for their families.
Despite long-standing bans on the trade in fur and other seal products strictly enforced by the US, the European Union and much of the rest of the world, Canada still subsidizes an annual hunt. Animal rights groups are still pressuring the Canadian government to phase out the practice, which was the Cape Cod organization’s founding campaign.
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans won’t budge, spokesman Frank Stanek told The Associated Press.
“The government of Canada believes in the sustainable use of a renewable resource such as the harp seal,” Stanek said, calling the harvest “an important economic and cultural activity.” He said officials are “committed to maintaining existing markets for Canadian seal products and supporting the development of potential new markets.”
IFAW’s Richard Moos, who co-produced the film with Branon, said the seal slaughter ought to have ceased for good many decades ago for the same reason that ended whaling at the turn of the 19th century: There’s no longer a viable market for it.
But old traditions die hard.
“It’s like trying to get Americans to stop eating apple pie. It’s so wrapped up in their identity of being sealers,” Moos said.
But for the Cape Cod-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, “Huntwatch” — a new documentary about the fight to end commercial seal hunts — is a story that needs to be told.
The film , which premieres next month on Discovery, very nearly was doomed to oblivion. It includes grainy footage that had languished for nearly five decades in the basement of the group’s global headquarters in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts.
“We really just want people to watch the film, look at all sides of the issue, and decide if this hunt still should be happening,” said IFAW spokeswoman Kerry Branon, a co-producer on the film.
Indigenous people still harvest seals for food in Canada, but the bloody slaughters chronicled in “Huntwatch” involve white hunters looking to cash in on the pelts of young harp seals and provide for their families.
Despite long-standing bans on the trade in fur and other seal products strictly enforced by the US, the European Union and much of the rest of the world, Canada still subsidizes an annual hunt. Animal rights groups are still pressuring the Canadian government to phase out the practice, which was the Cape Cod organization’s founding campaign.
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans won’t budge, spokesman Frank Stanek told The Associated Press.
“The government of Canada believes in the sustainable use of a renewable resource such as the harp seal,” Stanek said, calling the harvest “an important economic and cultural activity.” He said officials are “committed to maintaining existing markets for Canadian seal products and supporting the development of potential new markets.”
IFAW’s Richard Moos, who co-produced the film with Branon, said the seal slaughter ought to have ceased for good many decades ago for the same reason that ended whaling at the turn of the 19th century: There’s no longer a viable market for it.
But old traditions die hard.
“It’s like trying to get Americans to stop eating apple pie. It’s so wrapped up in their identity of being sealers,” Moos said.
