A hakapik is a club, of Norwegian design, used for killing seals. The hakapik is a multipurpose hunting tool—a heavy wooden club, with a hammer head (used to crush a seal's skull), and a hook (used to drag away the carcass) on the end. In Norway, and possibly elsewhere, the hakapik is often used to kill seals, while a rifle is used to kill most individuals.[1] The Hakapik is also used to ensure that shot seals are actually dead. Regulation Canadian hakapiks consist of a metal ferrule that weighs at least 340 g with a slightly bent spike not more than 14 cm in length on one side of the ferrule and a blunt projection not more than 1.3 cm in length on the opposite side of the ferrule and that is attached to a wooden handle that measures not less than 105 cm and not more than 153 cm in length and not less than 3 cm and not more than 5.1 cm in diameter. Although it is often claimed that the hakapik is inhumane, it is favored by sealers because it allows them to kill the seal without damaging the pelt. Also, with a rifle the sealer runs the risk of hurting, but not killing the seal, causing them to flee, wounded, back into the ocean to die slowly. Further, studies by American veterinary scientists on the use of the Hakapik on the seal hunt carried out on Pribilof Islands of Alaska suggested that it is an efficient tool designed to kill the animal quickly and humanely.[2] A report by members of the Canadian Medical Veterinary Association in September 2002 corroborated this claim.[3]
