Hakapik
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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. This is much more difficult to accomplish with a rifle. 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.[1] A report by members of the Canadian Medical Veterinary Association in September 2002 corroborated this claim.[2]
