| Summary: | Seal hunting and animal welfare are subjects that have generated debate. One reason is the concern for animal welfare during hunting. In Sweden, wild animals are not covered by animal welfare legislation; instead, animal protection falls under hunting legislation, which stipulate that hunting should be conducted in a manner that prevents unnecessary suffering to the wildlife. Currently, there is a lack of reliable knowledge and statistics regarding wounded seals in seal hunting. Wounding occurs when a seal is hit by a shot without immediately losing consciousness or dying, resulting in unnecessary suffering and impacting animal welfare. The absence of information on the extent of wounded seals makes it challenging to assess whether seal hunting is carried out in a humane and ethically acceptable manner. One method to obtain information about the outcome of the shot is by retrieving the seal. In Sweden, it is mandatory to report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency if the seal has been retrieved, as well as to report seals that have been fired at and/or killed during gray and harbor seal hunting. The purpose of the study is to map how animal welfare is affected by examining factors such as retrieval, seals that have been fired at, and hunting methods in licensed and protective hunting of gray and harbor seals. The mapping is done by investigating the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's reported data on killed and fired at seals, as well as through organized seal hunting and semi-structured interviews with seal hunters. The study also aims to relate the results to current legislation by examining relevant legal conditions to assess whether seal hunting complies with established standards for good animal welfare. Abstract Data from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency from April 20, 2015, to September 20, 2023, on retrieved seals showed that 56% of gray seals and 69% of harbor seals were retrieved. The retrieval rate varied between months, years, and counties, depending on whether the shot ...
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