"At the water's edge, I discovered a pair of volunteers watching over a small, sentient being. It lay hairless, blinking slowly as if struggling to see the world around it. Its pale, almost translucent skin blended with the white rocks on the stony beach. The volunteers told me that the pups' fur is not waterproof in their first few weeks of life, so they cannot enter the sea."
"But not long ago, the greatest threat to seal pups was humans themselves. Across northern Europe and Canada during the 19th and 20th centuries, workers roamed coastlines and pack ice, beating infant seals to death with clubs. White ice was smeared red. Annual kill rates for seals are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, all done with the purpose of turning them into raw industrial materials for the production of clothing, oil, and meat."
On Ireland's eastern coast, volunteers guarded a hairless seal pup that could not enter the sea because its fur is not waterproof during its first weeks, leaving it vulnerable to predators as it waited for its mother. During the 19th and 20th centuries, humans killed hundreds of thousands of seals across northern Europe and Canada for fur, oil, and meat, often beating pups to death. Reporting of such slaughter in 1881 provoked international outcry and treaties. Literary sympathy in late 19th-century fiction reflected growing concern. Today, killing seal pups can be a criminal offense, reflecting an expanded moral consideration for animals.
Read at Aeon
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