A Seal's Fate released

Key facts

Some fishermen and fish farmers shoot seals because they eat fish. A seal swimming close to a fish farm, in a salmon river or near coastal nets is seen as a competitor for fish.
There is no legal requirement for good marksmanship when shooting a seal, so there is a high risk of wounding which can lead to prolonged suffering.
In almost forty years, there has only been one successful prosecution under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970.
Populations of common seals have declined dramatically - by around 40 per cent - in some parts of Scotland over the last 5 years.
Incredibly, no-one knows how many seals are being killed - because there is no requirement for seal killings to be recorded.
We need a new law that will change the present seal-killing culture to one which is more humane.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009 00:00

Cover of report Our new report released in April looks at the welfare implications of shooting seals in Scotland. You can download the report here.

This report has been produced to explain why Scotland is not meeting the standards set down and internationally accepted as guidance on humane killing of mammals, both domesticated and wild.

Recommendations from report

Advocates for Animals recommends that the Scottish Government should use the Scottish Marine Bill to prohibit the shooting of all seals.

If the Scottish Government considers it necessary to permit limited derogations from such a ban, Advocates for Animals believes that this must be by way of a robust licensing scheme. This would cover only those situations where it could be independently verified that an individual seal was causing significant damage to a fishery, fishing equipment or fish farm cages and that all nonlethal alternatives to killing had genuinely been tried, and had failed.

As a minimum, any proposed licensing scheme must include the following conditions:

A prohibition on the shooting of seals during their breeding seasons.
A prohibition on the shooting of seals in water.
A prohibition on the shooting of seals from boats or other unstable platforms.
A requirement for independent assessment of shooting competence.
A requirement to ensure that whenever a seal is shot, it is actually killed.
Regular reviews to take account of new scientific evidence.

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