Sealers accused of skinning animals before ensuring death

Four sealers are facing charges in Newfoundland courts for failing to properly check if the seals they shot were actually dead before they were skinned.

Federal Fisheries Department spokesman Jerry Walsh says 17 charges have been laid against the four men for allegedly violating seal hunt rules in April 2007.

The sealers have yet to appear before the courts, and their names and hometowns weren’t released.

The sealers are being charged under a section of the marine mammal regulation dealing with the type of weapons used to kill the seal, and a so-called blink test that sealers are required to carry out before skinning the mammal.

The rule requires the sealers to touch the seal’s eyes after it is shot to ensure that it is dead.

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