Last month, Canadian seal hunters said their annual cull would be more humane this year, as they faced new rules set by the Canadian government. The new regulations required seals be killed by severing the arteries under their flippers before they were skinned. However witnesses of the cull say the new policy is not being carried out and painted a horrific picture of the actual hunt. If their words don't effectively communicate the cruelty, the accompanying photos ought to do it.

The European Commission is currently mulling over a ban which, if it becomes law, would destroy the sealing industry.

As Phil Jenkins, spokesman for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, explains: "We're trying to make sure there is no possible way that a seal could be skinned while it was irreversibly unconscious but not dead. It's really going the extra mile to make sure that it's as humane as it can be."

Having travelled to Nova Scotia to investigate the slaughter at close range, I can say categorically that the new rules are being completely ignored by the fishermen.

They are not even paying lip service to them.

To make matters worse, not only are the Canadian authorities making no attempts to enforce the legislation, they are also desperately trying to prevent the media and other observers witnessing what really goes on. They consistently refused to issue the media and animal welfare campaigners with the necessary permits to observe the cull.

On Saturday afternoon, though, I finally managed to get hold of one (which has since been withdrawn).

Such obstructions are matched by the hostility of the sealers themselves, who have become increasingly aggressive towards independent observers. On previous trips, Canadian fishermen have threatened me with knives, guns and hakapiks. Two years ago, when I visited the floes with a group of MEPs, we were involved in a high-speed car chase in which sealers repeatedly tried to force us off the road.

The authorities justify reporting restrictions by claiming that animal welfare campaigners and the media have consistently misrepresented the cull. They claim that the images used to accompany reporting are, in some cases, decades out of date.

Yet when I finally made it to the ice floes on Saturday, in a helicopter provided by the Humane Society of the United States, the carnage was every bit as horrific as the pictures suggest. Swathes of ice were drenched in blood. Piles of carcasses lay steaming in the sunshine. Fishing boats were off-loading men armed with hakapiks. They fanned out across the ice, killing all that came within range. Many of the fishing boats were pouring seal blood into the sea, turning it scarlet. Other sealers were casually tossing the skinned bodies of pups into the sea. A few will have been cutting the hearts out of the baby seals ready to eat for breakfast - an age-old tradition amongst sealers.

I witnessed dozens of seals being battered to death. At "best" only one was killed in full accordance with the new regulations. About a quarter were tested for death before being skinned but we saw only one pup having its arteries sliced open and left to "bleed out".

A minimum of 275,000 seal pups will be slaughtered before the hunt ends. Even though the EU actually banned the import of seal pelts some 25 years ago, Canadian authorities managed to discover a loophole that allowed the hunts to resume, which they did five years ago. Since that time 1.5 million baby seals have been killed.

Now the EU is working to completely ban the import of seal pelts, which should effectively put an end to the entire sealing industry, and animal lovers worldwide seem to agree with the proposal.

Mark Glover, of the Humane Society International, says: "We've heard the same excuses for three or four years now. A European ban is crucial but the UK should also act on its own. We cannot see any reason why they won't do so. It's quite clear that the sealers are failing to adhere to the new regulations. It's the same old hunt we've seen in the past."

» Daily Mail