§ Mr. Currieasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, whether, in view of the cruelty caused by the wounding by 0.22 bullets and the clubbing to death of seals at Scroby Sands, near Great Yarmouth, he will prohibit the execution of seals by such methods for the future.
§ Mr. Cledwyn HughesI am advised that, with the special high velocity bullet used in the Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee's recent cull, a .22 rifle is a humane means of killing seals. I am satisfied that, in the circumstances obtaining at the time, the clubbing of a single wounded seal was the most humane way of despatching it.
There are no general powers under which the use by the public of particular methods of killing common seals (or grey seals out of the close season) can be prohibited.