"Previous Canadian governments have allowed this heartbreaking hunt to continue despite the fact that the majority of
its citizens ...are opposed to it," the McCartneys said at a news conference in Charlottetown, P.E.I., on Thursday.
The McCartneys said 97 per cent of the seals killed in the hunt are less than three months old.
"We have complete faith that Prime Minister Harper will take swift and decisive action to end the slaughter of these defenceless
seal pups for good."
Photographed with seal pups
After the news conference in Charlottetown, the McCartneys flew by helicopter to ice floes near Iles-de-la-Madeleine about
160 kilometres northeast of Prince Edward Island. They were photographed there with seal pups.
"We don't want to see the local people suffer," McCartney said. "But, from what we hear, it is quite a small amount of
their annual revenue and this could be easily sorted out by the Canadian government, if they care to do it."
Ottawa estimates the harp seal population now stands at 5.9 million, up from two million in the 1970s, before restrictions
were imposed on the centuries-old hunt. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has insisted that most Canadians support
federal policies allowing the commercial venture.
"Canada is known as a great nation," McCartney said. "But this is something that leaves a stain on the character of the
Canadian people and we don't think that's right. I don't think the vast amount of Canadians think that's right."
The United States banned the import of seal products in 1972 and the European Union implemented a partial ban in 1983.
Canada banned the killing of very young harp seal pups – known as whitecoats – in 1987.
The celebrity couple's trip to Prince Edward Island was arranged by the Humane Society of the United States, which hopes
the media attention will put pressure on the federal government to end the hunt.
From CBC Archives: Pelts, Pups and Protest: The Atlantic Seal Hunt
