Seal Fur
When a baby seal is born, it has a distinct look from
its mother with shining white fur covering all its body.
The attractive white fur of a baby seal enables an interesting
way of natural protection against enemies. The young
seals can neither move fast in the snow nor swim fast
in the ocean. At the sight of their enemies, they simply
hide themselves in ice and safeguard themselves. As
the babies grow, their fur shed off exposing their bodies.
However by this time, they adapt with swift movements
both in water and land to sustain themselves. Once they
shed their fur, the adult seals look gray or black in
color. The presence of white fur is the distinct way
of identifying seal babies from adult ones.
The attractive sale value of the fur accounts for alarming
rates of hunting seal pups that are just born. Though
the government has made several laws against hunting
of baby seals, the process still continues in sickening
rates. Most of the seals killed during the past five
years were under the age of one month, while 95% were
under 3 months old. At the time of their hunts, most
pups are recently separated from their mothers. Most
pitiably, most of them have not even completed their
first swim or good meal.
Seal fur is unique and highly in demand with great
market potential. Seal fur can effectively replace the
traditional furs in all types of goods apart from providing
a distinctive look and finish to articles. Seal fur
is increasingly used in garments industry especially
to make coats and hats. The flatten hair of the fur
is also used as a decorative feature in shoes, vests
and jackets. Once dyed, it is difficult to trace the
origin of seal fur. Because of its good buoyancy, seal
fur is also used as bait for fishing. These are some
of the reasons why baby seals are killed in more numbers
than adult ones.
As a move to prevent mass hunting of seals, presently
Belgian and Italian governments have banned the trade
of sealskins. Several other European countries are to
follow this example. With these moves, the future of
sealskin trade appears dim. Several countries are forcing
the government of Canada to put and end to seal hunt.
With several positive moves, the sealskin is slowly
turning less popular in the manufacturing industry thus
holding promising results to end seal hunt.
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