Paul McCartney has called upon the Canadian government to outlaw the practice of seal hunting in the province of Newfoundland.

The former Beatles member and animal rights activist issued a statement released through the Humane Society calling for an end to the centuries old hunting practice.

"Canada's brutal commercial seal hunt has begun, and once again thousands of baby seals will be shot and bludgeoned to make fur products that nobody wants or needs.

Videos of the bloody seal slaughter provide the only vital evidence to demonstrate year after year that these seals are dying a horrible death for their fur," he says in the statement.

The Human Society's director Rebecca Aldworth also released a statement:

"This is the 17th year that I have witnessed the seal slaughter.

The suffering I have seen is impossible to forget. If the killing happened in view of the public, it would have been shut down decades ago. But it occurs far offshore."