The blood of hundreds of baby seals has stained the pristine white snow of Canada's ice floes as the world's largest annual marine mammal slaughter begins. Horrifying images taken only yesterday show seals being shot and wounded before they are dragged onto a vessel - where they clubbed to death for their fur. Photographs of this year's commercial hunt off the coast of Newfoundland were captured by animal rights charity Humane Society International (HSI) who say the baby animals 'are dying a violent death for fur products that nobody is buying'. Horrific: Humane Society International has captured shocking images of seals being clubbed to death on Canada's ice floes (pictured) as this year's 'commercial hunt' gets underway . Cruel: Images show the animals - who are eventually skinned for their fur - being shot and wounded on the thin ice before being dragged (pictured) onto vessels . Chilling: The seals who do not die from the gunshot wounds are dragged onto ships (pictured) where they are clubbed to death . Gruesome: The baby animals (pictured) are suffering a violent death 'for fur products nobody wants' according to Humane Society International . Inhumane: Some seals die from the gunshot wounds (top) while others escape into the water where they slowly die from their injuries (bottom) Blood-stained: Once the animals are shot, sealers retrieve the bodies by impaling them with a sharpened hook (pictured) which forces the seals that are still alive to violently thrash out . Cruel: The images HSI took from a helicopter above Newfoundland's ice floes show sealers (pictured) pulling the seal's blood-stained carcasses onto their ship . The disturbing images show the animals thrashing in pain as they are pulled across the blood-stained snow while others are seen impaled on the boat's deck. HSI's executive director Rebecca Aldworth said: '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. 'We saw one baby seal clearly raise her head from the massive pool of blood she lay in. Another was shot and thrashed on the ice only to slip into the blood-slicked water. 'It is reprehensible that these baby seals are being killed with government financing, even as the largest seal processor in Canada admits to warehousing a stockpile of seal fur.' The Newfoundland government has authorised the killing of up to 468,000 harp, hooded and grey seals, according to HSI. They claim the seals - many of which are just a few weeks old - are shot, clubbed and skinned for their fur despite a decreasing global demand for them. Killing: Even Sir Paul McCartney who visited a seal nursery with HSI in 2006 has made an emotional plea for Canada to stop the seal hunt (pictured) Unforgiving: The animals are slaughtered in a remote region off the coast of Newfoundland (pictured) - HSI says if the killing happened in view of the public 'it would have been shut down decades ago' Brutal: Veterinary experts claim the seals are killed inhumanely in the commercial hunt (pictured) because of the harsh environment in which it occurs and the speed at which they are killed . Barbaric: HSI's executive director says 'it is reprehensible that these baby seals (pictured) are being killed with government financing' Demand: The country's largest purchaser of sealskin announced that it will no longer purchase the fur from seals who are killed and skinned (pictured) during commercial hunts . Innocent: Government reports found 98 percent of the seals (pictured) killed in the Canadian commercial seal slaughter are less than three months of age, according to HSI . The demand for seal products diminished greatly after the European Union, United States, Switzerland, Mexico, Taiwan and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia banned the trade of some or all products of commercial seal hunts. With China also blocking attempts to import seal meat into the country, the price of seal products from Canada declined rapidly and convinced many 'sealers' to abandon the act. Sir Paul McCartney who visited a seal nursery with HSI in 2006 has made an emotional plea for Canada to stop the seal hunt. The former Beatle said: '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.' In recent years, Newfoundland's government has reportedly dished out £6million in subsidies to seal processing plants to 'prop up the dying industry' - and announced a further £1.3million earlier this month. 'It is a double tragedy,' according to HSI spokesperson Wendy Higgins who told MailOnline: 'They [seals] are suffering for frivolous fur products and Canada can't even sell the fur because more and more countries around the world are boycotting sales because of the horrendous cruelty.' 'We want the Canadian government to offer a buy-out to the sealers and put and end to this senseless slaughter. 'The hunt is legal but that doesn't mean that the killing is always done according to what few guidelines govern the industry and HSI has frequently documented breaches. 'Even if they did always kill the seals according to the rules, it's still a dreadfully brutal process... This hunt is taking place many hundreds of miles out with absolutely no-one there to monitor what they're doing.' Immoral: Even though the hunt (pictured) is legal in Canada, animal rights campaigners say it's still a dreadfully brutal process . Shocking: The Newfoundland government has authorised the killing of up to 468,000 seals (pictured) this year, despite declining global demand for their fur . Hunted: The boss of a company who accepted government funds to continue purchasing sealskin said 'it's probably not a really good time to get in this industry' Death: As many as half-a-million seals (pictured) will be hunted and killed in this year's cull . Only this week the country's largest purchaser of sealskin announced that it will no longer purchase seal fur, citing a lack of demand and a warehouse full of it. Carino Processing Ltd also refused over £600,000 in financing from the Newfoundland government. But a new company PhocaLux International is accepting government funds and has stated it will purchase around 30,000 seal furs, according to CBC. The firm's Chief Executive told the news channel 'the markets aren't really great around the world... it's probably not a really good time to get in this industry.' Government reports confirmed that 98 percent of the seals killed in the Canadian commercial seal slaughter are pups less than three months of age, according to HSI. Veterinary experts have stated that Canada's commercial seal hunt is inherently inhumane because of the remote, harsh environment in which it occurs and the speed at which the killing is conducted for commercial and safety reasons.
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT . Many seals who are just a few weeks old are shot, impaled and clubbed to death on 'sealing' vessels for their fur . 'They are dying a violent death for fur products that nobody wants or needs,' said Sir Paul McCartney who backs the charity who took chilling photographs . Demand has diminished after purchase of seal products was banned by both European Union and the United States . Newfoundland government has pledged millions of pounds worth of subsidies to prop up country's 'dying industry'