A 30-Day Reprieve For the Pups

WHEN a team of Montreal moviemakers filmed seal hunters bashing in the skulls of cuddly baby seals on the pristine ice floes off the east coast of Canada, the shots were seen round the world. That was five years ago, and the howls of protest have still not subsided. Complained Jack Davis, Canada's Minister of Fisheries: "A lot of young people in distant countries now think of Canada only in terms of seals."

Last week the Canadian government bowed to pressure and banned the killing of month-old seal pups in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The new policy means that the killing will now be restricted to seals over a month old. After one month the pups reach the "beater" stage, when they turn from white to brown and, leaving their ice floes, "beat" their way north to the Arctic. Hunters may use guns or arrows but may no longer club seals of any age to death.

Why is it more acceptable to kill "beater" seals than younger pups? "Well," explained Jack Davis, "Mother has left, and the animal is no longer as cute as it was. . ." Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pointed out that the ban on clubs may result in less humane methods of killing. "But those who protest," he noted candidly, "won't be shown the same photographs of baby seals with their big blue or brown eyes."