"Why do hunters club seals?
It's safe and easy, and it preserves the seal's valuable pelt. Federal laws in Canada give a sealer
three ways to hunt his prey. He can shoot a seal with a rifle or shotgun—provided it's above a minimum caliber or gauge; he can break its head with a blunt club (like a baseball bat) that must be at least 2 feet long; or he can smash in its brains with something called a
hakapik—a 4- or 5-foot wooden pole with a bent, metal spike affixed to the end.
In general, a sealer will use a
hakapik or club if at all possible. That's because with these weapons, it's much easier to aim a blow directly at the seal pup's head. One swing from a
hakapik will usually kill a pup right away.
By law, you have to keep clubbing the seal in the forehead until you know for sure that it's dead."
From
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2006/03/why_do_they_club_seals.html
Also,
"In the Canadian commercial seal hunt, the majority of the hunters initiate the kill using a firearm. Ninety percent of sealers on the ice floes of the Front (east of Newfoundland), where the majority of the hunt occurs, use firearms.
An older and more traditional method of killing seals is with a
hakapik: a heavy wooden club with a hammer head and metal hook on the end. The
hakapik is used because of its efficiency; the animal can be killed quickly without damage to its pelt. The hammer head is used to crush the seals' thin skulls, while the hook is used to move the carcasses. Canadian sealing regulations describe the dimensions of the clubs and the
hakapiks, and caliber of the rifles and minimum bullet velocity, that can be used. They state: "Every person who strikes a seal with a club or hakapik shall strike the seal on the forehead until its skull has been crushed," and that "No person shall commence to skin or bleed a seal until the seal is dead," which occurs when it "has a glassy-eyed, staring appearance and exhibits no blinking reflex when its eye is touched while it is in a relaxed condition." Reportedly, in one study,
three out of eight times, the animal was not rendered either dead or unconscious by shooting, and the hunters would then kill the seal using a hakapik or other club of a type that is sanctioned by the governing authority.
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_hunting
Hunters aren't uncaring, malicious marauders inflicting needless agony on these animals. The clubbing is used to reduce the suffering, not make it worse. People need to be honest enough to actually look at what is happening, and why, instead of reacting emotionally to what
appears to be cruel. Cruelty isn't being inflicted.
Case in point. I have been looking at the prospect of raising rabbits at home for my own personal meat production. The practice is more widespread than you'd think. LOTS of people do it. The recommended method of slaughter is a quick blow to the head, then slitting the throat. The purpose of the blow to the head is to stun them into a state of senselessness so that pain is eliminated and the slitting of the throat is to produce death. The initial blow eliminates any pain caused by the throat slit. I might remind you that the OT method of sacrificial slaughter, as prescribed by God, did not include the blow to the head. Live and fully conscious animals had their throats slit. If any death of an animal is necessarily cruel, then you've got some splainin' to do.