It's time for Canada to end the systematic slaughter of hundreds of thousands of baby seals, argues Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. While the US and even bear-hunting Vladimir Putin have banned the practice, Canadians keep up the "gruesome drill" of massacring baby seals for their pelts. While Parker usually turns a blind eye, this year PETA sent her a hakapik—"the aptly named bludgeoning and hacking instrument"—which caught her attention.
The hakapik, used to efficiently crush seals' skulls, is theoretically humane, but it's tough to
"properly administer a blow to the head when one is standing on a slippery ice floe swinging a heavy club at a small moving animal." And just because slaughterhouses are cruel does not mean we should extend our cruelty to a "bloody industry" of declining economic importance. "Come on, Canada," Parker argues. "See things Putin's way and I'll donate my hakapik to the museum of your choice." (More Kathleen Parker stories.)
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