Campaigners Continue Filming Despite Intimidation and Violence
14 April 2006
A coalition of campaigners from Respect for Animals, the Humane Society International and the Swiss based Franz Weber Foundation to continue filming hunt despite intimidation and violence.
Italy calls for EU action as its import ban of seal products comes into force.
This year’s Canadian seal hunt has seen a huge escalation in intimidatory tactics by seal hunters in an attempt stop observers witnessing and documenting the cruel slaughter of hundreds of thousands seals, the vast majority of which will be less than two months old.
This year the hunt has attracted much publicised international condemnation, calls for boycotts of Canadian seafood products and holidays in Canada, plus actions by governments around the world to ban the import of Canadian seal products.
Indeed, today (14 April), Italy has called on the EU to act as its own national ban on the import of seal products comes into force.
In the last month alone, observers from Respect for Animals, the Humane Society International (HSI (UK)) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have been subject to:
- Seal innards and flippers thrown at observers
- Verbal intimidation and threats during the hunt, on the icy waters
- Sealing boats charging at and ramming observers’ inflatable boats
- Sealing boat causing damage to inflatable boat by ramming it onto an ice pan
- Calls to emergency services for assistance unheeded, twice
- Refusal to issue permits to hunt observers
- Ramming into a ditch of observers’ vehicle
- Observers, including media and a Member of the European Parliament, held against their will as hotel is surround by sixty strong angry mob
Since the second phase of the seal hunt began on 12 April, a group of international observers, including a Member of the European Parliament, journalists and animal welfare workers have been subjected to a wave of intimidation and threats as seal hunters vow to stop them filming their annual hunt.
The incidents have happened in Cartwright, Newfoundland and Labrador, as the hunt takes place off the nearby coast, in an area known as the Front, where sealers will kill upwards of 200,000 young seals over the next few days.
Mark Glover, Director, Respect for Animals and Humane Society International (UK), said today (14 April): “These people will not stop us filming their activities and exposing the cruelty of this hunt to people around the world. Their desperate attempts to intimidate us, and our guests, only go to show that our campaign to expose this vile hunt is working — and that the hunters’ have indeed got something to hide — their cruel and brutal actions against defenceless seal pups.“
Sealers have been reported as saying they do not want the observers, from the HSUS, Respect for Animals and the Franz Weber Foundation, filming the hunt – film gathered by the campaigners has brought international condemnation on the hunt and led to the banning of imports of seal products in many countries around the world; the latest import ban came into force today, Friday 14 April, in Italy.
Since this year’s hunt started in March, observers have been pelted with seal innards and flippers; been abused and verbally threatened whilst out in icy Canadian waters; had their inflatable boats rammed by sealing vessels; and had damage caused to an inflatable boat. Despite the obsevers’ distress calls to the emergency services during one attack, no help was forthcoming, no arrests of the sealers involved have taken place and no investigation is underway into the sealers’ actions.
Rebecca Aldworth, HSUS Canadian wildlife issues director and a former Newfoundlander, said: “It is an injustice that sealers who rammed our inflatable and endangered the lives of staff from HSUS, Respect for Animals’ and the media have not been arrested, yet peaceful observers there to document the hunt were detained.“
During one incident, a group of observers were arrested, in what has been suggested was a set-up, just after their boat was rammed by a sealing vessel. Police on board a nearby sealing boat arrested the protestors and two journalists, confiscated their film of seals being clubbed and shot, and held them for six hours. They were later released; the incident, on 26 March, is being investigated and charges may be pending.
Rebecca Aldworth added: “The DFO knows the HSUS is not there to disrupt the hunt. They know that the only disruption of the hunt that occurs is when the world witnesses the cruelty involved, and stops buying the products derived from it. And that is why they are trying to prevent us from filming it.“
In the meantime, in what is believed to be the first time a Canadian fisheries minister has exercised such an authority, the campaigners involved have been denied permits to observe the hunt from the ice. This has meant that these observers have unable to attend the ice for the second phase of the hunt, which began on 12 April.
Aldworth added: “This is a very clear and calculated attempt by [federal Fisheries Minister] Loyola Hearn to block legal and peaceful observation of the commercial seal hunt. I think it is a national disgrace that he has been allowed to subvert the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and his own regulations to protect the sealing industry.“
The HSUS threatened legal action in order that its observers be issued observation permits. In the UK, Mark Glover’s MP, Vernon Coaker, wrote to the Canadian Embassy asking that a permit be issued to him. No permits have been issued to these observers.
Since this second phase began on 12 April, the sealers’ intimidation tactics have expanded to include threats on dry land.
Observers from HSUS, Respect for Animals, Humane Society International and the Swiss-based Franz Weber Foundation, along with Swedish MEP, Carl Schlyter, and several international journalists, have been subject to an array of frightening and potentially dangerous acts by angry mobs of pro-seal hunt campaigners, who seem to be intent on ensuring the observers do not get to see the brutality of their hunt activities.
Whilst observing the hunt on Wednesday 12 March, near the town of Cartwright, the observers’ helicopters were physically stopped from taking off, on two occasions, when seal hunt supporters sat on the helicopters’ floats. Police had to be called to persuade up to fifty local people to move away so the aircraft could leave.
On Thursday 13 March, the observers were held against their will when a group of around sixty local sealers and fishermen surrounded their hotel, in Blanc Sablon. Canadian police present at the hotel did not disperse the group, but after calls to the US Embassy in Ottawa, the observers eventually secured a police escort from the hotel.
The same day, a vehicle carrying international journalists, on its way to the helicopters which were to take them to witness the hunt, was rammed off the road by what was believed to be local pro-sealers, who had previously hammered on the roof and doors of the vehicle as it attempted to move through a large angry mob.
John Grandy, senior vice-president of the Humane Society of the United States, said of the incidents: “We are appalled by these violent tactics used by the local citizens in an attempt to prevent our team from documenting the cruelty of the seal hunt. Our team is there as peaceful observers and they should not have to fear for their safety. This is the second incident where the team has been physically placed in danger – the first time was during the Gulf hunt [in late March] when their boat was rammed by a sealing vessel.“
“We cannot understand why the Canadian government is allowing these people to break the law and endanger lives but revoking our team members’ permits and infringing on their rights. This is a terrible injustice and Canada should be ashamed.“
Grandy added: “After all, the tragedy here is the cruel slaughter of the seals and having sealers try to hide it from the world only compounds the grievous wrongs.“
Sealers have recently called for all observers to be banned from witnessing the hunt.
In an article for The Pilot magazine, in March, Mr. Burton, who “owns the longliner Ocean Glider, [and] has been sealing for over 30 years” was quoted, as he prepared his vessel for the hunt, as saying: “…it is time for the federal government to put their foot down and limit the access the media and protestors have to the area of the seal hunt.
“Especially now with a new government and a new minister, I would like them to look at putting in buffer zones,” he said, adding: “You could maybe have 50 to 100 miles where none of these camera or protestors are allowed within it because I don’t think you will ever see the day when they (protestors) come in there and say, ‘Oh yeah, they are having a perfect hunt’, and they are not going to go on CNN and say they are having a perfect hunt in the Gulf or on the front of Newfoundland.”
The article also said that “Premier Danny Williams and Fish, Food and Allied Workers president Earle McCurdy also joined in the call last week to have the federal government cease granting permits to animal rights groups to ‘observe’ the seal harvest.”
Out on the ice, up to 325,000 seals are being killed for their fur.
According to Canadian press reports, the first phase of the seal hunt, which took place in the Gulf of St Lawrence at the end of March, sealers exceeded their quota of 18,500 seals by about 1,000. To date approximately 91,000 young seals have been slaughtered.
And, with almost 200 sealing vessels now out at the Front, another 230,000 seals are due to be targeted over the next few days; indeed it was estimated 120,000 seals were likely to be slaughtered in just one day. The hunt at the Front is usually undertaken using guns, allowing for the very real possibility that many wounded seals will escape into the water and under the ice to bleed to death, as has already been witnessed during the hunt in the Gulf last month.
The Canadian government has set the 2006 annual quota at 325,000 animals. Last year, 98.5% of the 317,000 seals slaughtered were two months old, or younger. Campaigners are concerned that such large quotas, coupled with a high mortality rate due to the melting ice floes causing high instances of seal pups drowning, due to their lack of proficiency at swimming at such a young age, will severely impact on the seal population.