Innocent Slaughter?
Next month 1,800 grey seals round Scotland will be killed by order of the British Government. Every year thousands of harp seals are clubbed to death on the frozen pack ice off the eastern coast of Canada. Seal hunts provide a living for isolated groups of fishermen and skins for the fur trade around the world.
Vehement protests have been mounted to try to stop the hunt in Canada on the grounds that it is cruel, unnecessary and is driving the seals to extinction. But the hunt goes on. Horizon went to Canada, Norway and the northern coasts of Britain to collect evidence on both sides.
The argument is by no means clear-cut. The hunters are just as passionate as their opponents. Various humane methods of killing have been tried. But who else benefits from the hunt and how many seals are there left? Narrator VALENTINE PALMER
Film editor NICK rayner
Editor SIMON CAMPBELL-JONES
Written and produced hv TONY edwards