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CHARLOTTETOWN, CANADA – Rebecca Aldworth is leading a 10 person team
from Humane Society International’s US office to witness the brutality of
the Canadian seal hunt. Ms Aldworth, Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues,
is available for comment from the icefloes and provides the following eye
witness account from the first day of the hunt (footage is available)
"Starting at dawn today, boats carrying hundreds of seal hunters converged
in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The baby seals we've watched for
the last several days are being killed as Canada's gruesome seal hunt begins
again. Over the next few weeks, thousands more seals, totalling over
300,000, will be shot or clubbed to death.
The hunt is inhumane and cruel. Veterinary studies have shown that humane
killing guidelines are not enforced and in many cases seals are skinned
while conscious. Each year, parliamentarians, journalists and animal welfare
observers report incredible cruelty at the hunt, including dragging
conscious seals across the ice with boathooks, shooting seals and leaving
them to suffer in agony and skinning seals alive.
Today's killing levels meet and even exceed those of the 1950's and 60's,
when close to two-thirds of the harp seal population was wiped out.
Together with a powerful alliance of like-minded organisation Humane Society
International is now calling for a boycott of all Canadian seafood. Over
three-quarters of Canadian seafood is exported each year, contributing more
than $3 billion for the Canadian economy annually. This dwarfs the few
million dollars brought in by the seal hunt each year. We believe the
Canadian fishing industry will soon see that the price of an international
seafood boycott is not worth continuing this cruel commercial seal hunt."
“Canada
exports $24 million dollars worth of seafood to Australia every year so
Australian consumers have an opportunity to send a powerful message to the
Canadian Government by joining the international boycott. HSI is calling on
our Australian supporter base to check the origin of all seafood and to say
no if it has come from Canada”, said Nicola Beynon HSI’s Wildlife and
Habitats Program Manager in Sydney.
High-resolution photographs and video b-roll available
upon request via secure FTP server.
For information on the seal hunt go to
www.protectseals.org
or
www.hsus.org
or
www.hsi.org.au |