Rated 's' For Slaughter? New Film Questions Canada Seal Hunt

Hunters clubbing seals to death and bloodying the otherwise pristine ice of the Canadian Arctic. [...] for the Cape Cod-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, "Huntwatch" — a new documentary about the fight to end commercial seal hunts — is a story that needs to be told. Indigenous people still harvest seals for food in Canada, but the bloody slaughters chronicled in "Huntwatch" involve white hunters looking to cash in on the pelts of young harp seals and provide for their families. Animal rights groups are still pressuring the Canadian government to phase out the practice, which was the Cape Cod organization's founding campaign. Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans won't budge, spokesman Frank Stanek told The Associated Press. The government of Canada believes in the sustainable use of a renewable resource such as the harp seal," Stanek said, calling the harvest "an important economic and cultural activity.