105 



the children of the world. It is truly impossible for me to miderstand 

 how any human being can bring himself to kill them. Their slaughter 

 is more than just bloody, it is unnatural. 



I did not stay for the kill but this is the way Oscar Hartzell, another 

 student who did witness the kill, described it : 



At dawn, "landsmen" the citizens of the coasts and island — stream across the 

 ice on foot, snowmobile and even by car. All day airplanes scour the ice spotting 

 herds for the commercial ships. Hunted from land, sea, and air, a white puff of 

 fur is a pitiful disquise. 



One day I walked out on the ice with the landsmen, who dress for the hunt 

 in overalls, rubber boots and carry a club thirty inches long and three inches 

 thick. By the end of the day, boots, overalls and club were blood red. The men 

 stopped frequently to warm their hands in blood and smear it under their eyes. 



Seals are friendly to man and just as they allowed us to approach to pet their 

 bahies, they allowed the hunters to approach. They usually went to the nearest 

 open water and bobbed up and down, looking bewildered as their babies were 

 clubbed. Each mother has one pup and knows him from all others, even when 

 he is nothing but a carcass. With cruel accuracy one biologist has given the 

 period of mourning as four days. At the end of the day when the hunters have 

 gone and the ice is covered with "bodies, the searching females with their beauti- 

 fully shaped heads look like a tragic chrous of madonnas. 



The hunter tries to hit the baby seal squarely on the head with the first blow 

 of the club. Sometimes he misses. I saw a man club a seal twice, kick it over on 

 its back and start to cut it. All the time, the animal was jumping and crying. 

 The man looked up at me and clubbed it again quickly. A native of the islands 

 told me himself that the seal hunters "don't want to take the time to make sure 

 the seals are dead." 



This is what Oscar saw of the hunt. One official from the Ministry 

 of Fisheries excused the hunt as "the Easter and Mardi Gras rolled 

 into one for people whose life is uneventful." What a waste of life for 

 just a holiday. 



To me it is a final irony that when the last seal is killed and the last 

 hunter returns home from the ice, he can stop at almost any of the 

 stores of the Magdalene Islands and buy a foam and nylon baby seal 

 for a child who may never have a chance to see a real one. 



Mr. Wolff. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Thank you, Mr. Wolff. 



Miss Herrington, do you wish to continue ? 



Miss Herrington. Thank you, Susane. 



Of course, the kill of the baby seals in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence 

 and the Northwest Atlantic by the Canadians and Norwegians is a 

 true horror, one which has moved our country and the Harris-Pryor 

 bill would do a great deal to stop that kill by removing the economic 

 incentive for it by banning the importation of this particular sealskin 

 into the country. . . 



We can hardly, though, castigate other countries for their immor- 

 ality when the blood of the Pribiloffs is so thick upon our own hands. 



I am so pleased that you have given us the opportunity at this time 

 to show you just what the Alaskan fur seals are like and just what the 

 management of them concerns. 



Possibly you gentlemen would be able to see the screen better if you 

 moved to the other side. 



[Film shown on the clubbing of seals.] 



Miss Herrington. Gentlemen, our time is growing short and I 

 would like to introduce the daughter of Senator Fred Harris, this 

 beautiful young lady is Laura Harris. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Young lady, we are happy to welcome you to the 

 committee. 



