Documentary of the Day

It's like The Cove, but with seals. Animal Planet will air next month a one-hour documentary, Seal Wars, on Namibia's brutal seal slaughter -- more than 85,000 Cape fur seals (the majority are pups) are clubbed or shot to death each year. According to Humane Society International, such methods are not only cruel, but also unsustainable to the South African seal population. The footage for the documentary was shot covertly last year, when Sea Shepherd Conservation Society launched Operation Desert Seal in an effort to expose "Namibia's dirty little secret" and drive international awareness "until the Southern Hemisphere's sole seal cull is abolished." "We created quite a controversy in Namibia," said SSCS's Steve Roest, who led the team into Namibia. "But the suggestion by the Namibian government that we breached their national security and the fact that they used the navy, army and police to keep this slaughter hidden speaks volumes to the corruption involved." The documentary airs June 8. [mnn]