India, April 27 -- As I write, what the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) describes as "the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet", continues in Canada. It occurs in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, and usually in spring, the breeding season for seals when pups are born and are nursed by their mothers.

The scale of the carnage can well be imagined from the fact that, as pointed out by the HSUS, "More than one million seals have been slaughtered in the past five years alone." The actual number is likely to be higher as many of the seals, wounded after being shot from moving boats, are left to die slowly and painfully. This happens principally because the main seal-skin proces...