Shoot Seals, Don’t Club Them, Scientist Suggests

Low-calibre bullets could be a more humane way to carry out the annual Atlantic seal hunt.

If you were a seal would you rather be bludgeoned to death, or shot in the head? It’s not much of a choice, but wildlife pathologist Pierre-Yves Daoust has set out to answer that question and possibly solve one of the seal hunt’s PR problems to boot. The image of hunters clubbing pups in the head has helped turn the annual hunt into a controversial spectacle, and Dr. Daoust suspects using low-calibre rifles could be better for both hunter and seal alike. He’s following sealers armed with low-speed firearms on the hunt this year to record whether they kill pups as quickly as blows to the head. Anti-sealing activists dismissed the experiment as an effort to sanitize an unethical practice.