Baby Seal Killers

Remember back when everyone got so upset by images of Canadian hunters clubbing cute baby seals? The practice hasn't ended: You can learn more about it from the Humane Society, IFAW, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. But it turns out that there is more than one way to kill a cute baby seal. On Monday, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that Arctic sea ice had reached its maximum extent--a record low, tied with 2006. The lack of sea ice is deadly for harp seals, which depend on it to give birth to their pups. CBC News reports that poor ice conditions "will take a heavy toll on seal pups in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence again this year, with thousands likely to die." As many as half of the pups born in Atlantic Canada may die, estimates Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans biologist Mike Hammill.

There you have it: James Inhofe and Fred Upton, baby seal killers.

--Paul Rauber

Image: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society