BillCosby

Title
Canadian seal hunt protestors spark anger

Link
AFP: Canadian seal hunt protestors spark anger
-----------------------------------------------------
Excerpt

OTTAWA (AFP) — Animal rights activists came under fire Friday for comparing the deaths of four sealers to the fate of hunted seals, and face possible charges for interfering in Canada's annual seal cull.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said in a statement that "the deaths of four sealers is a tragedy," but added "the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seal pups is an even greater tragedy."

Green Party leader Elizabeth May immediately quit the society's advisory board, while Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn said he would "pursue charges" against the seal hunt protestors.

"We will not tolerate the reckless antics of the Sea Shepherd Society," said Hearn, alleging the society's trawler the Farley Mowat this week "attacked" a Coast Guard vessel and endangered sealers' lives.

"We will protect our sealers," he told parliament.

The Sea Shepherd clan countered that it "has broken no laws" and asserted the right of its Farley Mowat crew to navigate freely outside Canada's 12-mile limit to document the "cruel" slaughter of seals.

Sealers routinely face shifting ice, high winds, freezing temperatures and unpredictable seas during the controversial seal hunting season which kicked off a week ago on March 28.

One vessel was forced to return to port last week after being hit by huge chunks of ice.

On Saturday, a boat accident left three sealers dead and one missing. The 12-meter (40-foot) trawler encountered steering problems and later capsized while it was being towed back to port by the Coast Guard.

But Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson said "these men are sadistic baby killers."

"They are vicious killers who are now pleading for sympathy because some of their own died while engaged in a viciously brutal activity."

"One of the sealers was quoted as saying that he felt absolutely helpless as he watched the boat sink with sealers onboard." Watson said.

"I can't think of anything that defines helplessness and fear more than a seal pup on the ice that can't swim or escape as it is approached by some cigarette-smoking ape with a club."

A spokesman for Elizabeth May told AFP: "We're opposed to the seal hunt, but we want sealers to be safe. To compare the tragedy of the deaths of sealers to the seal hunt is unacceptable to us."

Earlier, fishermen in the French isles of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Canada's East Coast cut the moorings of the docked Farley Mowat, witnessed by an AFP correspondent, to show solidarity with Canadian sealers mourning their comrades.

Activists also said that the government on Thursday grounded a US Humane Society helicopter used to observe the hunt.

Earlier Alex Cornelissen, captain of the Farley Mowat, said the Canadian Coast Guard had "declared war on seal defenders," saying his vessel was "twice rammed" in the port stern in the Gulf of St. Lawrence late Sunday after he ignored warnings not to approach sealers.

Officials said the Farley Mowat was "grazed" and there was no damage nor injuries reported.

Hearn accused activists of "attempting to provoke a confrontation" with the Coast Guard ship by maneuvering the Farley Mowat in front of the vessel.

Such tactics "jeopardize the safety and security of people involved in the annual seal hunt," the minister said, urging the Farley Mowat to withdraw from the area.

Ottawa maintains the hunt poses no threat to the harp seal population, and insists the commercial cull is humane and an economic mainstay of its Atlantic Coast communities.

The harvest limit was set at 275,000 harp seals this year, up 5,000 from last year.

The Farley Mowat's spokeswoman Shannon Mann said: "We've seen seals suffering in agony on the ice. We've seen enough to know that Canada's claim that the seal hunt is humane has no credibility."

------------------------------------------------------
Comment:

Damn Canadians @ it again..........................

__________________
Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

Sharon den Adel

IMO, the seal hunt should be prohibited. There is simply no reason whatsoever for these tyrants to club baby seal cubs to death. It is cruel, and very often painful for the animal involved.

I was amused by this quote: "They are vicious killers who are now pleading for sympathy because some of their own died while engaged in a viciously brutal activity."

"One of the sealers was quoted as saying that he felt absolutely helpless as he watched the boat sink with sealers onboard." Watson said.

"I can't think of anything that defines helplessness and fear more than a seal pup on the ice that can't swim or escape as it is approached by some cigarette-smoking ape with a club."


I find it ironic that these people mourn the loss of their own sealers, but feel no remorse for clubbing these animals to death.
The Canadian Government needs to step in and ban this 'sport'.

__________________
Sparkling angel I believe
You were my savior in my time of need.
Blinded by faith I couldn't hear
All the whispers, the warnings so clear

Free Parking

You haven't led a full life until you have clubbed yourself a baby seal.

Kanadesaga

you're sick.

__________________
Free all Political prisoners. Now.

Malkavian

Absolutely.

__________________

BillCosby

So the Russians are big clubbers to???

__________________
Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror