The Hunt Begins...

Today's the start of Canada's annual seal hunt and this year a new rule is in place to ensure seals are dead before they're skinned. Hunters must sever the arteries under a seal's flippers in an effort to make sure 'it's humane as it can be.' Seal pups 10-21 days old who haven't molted their downy white fur must be spared. Animal activists call the hunt cruel with little supplemental income to sealers. The Fisheries Department says the practice is sustainable and well-managed, providing supplemental support for isolated fishing communities. The most recent survey in 2004 estimatese the population of harp seals has more than tripled since the 1970s. Sound management or inhumanity? What do readers think?