- WASHINGTON -- "It is
horrible to see the aftermath of this slaughter. There is blood everywhere.
Every few feet as you walk across the ice, you pass by large pools of blood
and carcasses lined up in open graves. Their eyes stare up at you. It's
a dirty little secret the Canadian government doesn't want you to know.
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- "The sealers don't take the carcasses, because the
meat is practically worthless. So they leave them to rot on the ice, or
dump them in the ocean. Hundreds of thousands of them. Rotting because
all the sealers want is the skins."
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- Those were the words of Rebecca Aldworth, a woman who
grew up in a Newfoundland fishing community where, every spring, men from
the town would take to the ice floes to club to death baby seals and take
their skins.
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- Now, as the biggest seal hunt for 50 years takes place
off the coast of eastern Canada, Ms Aldworth spends her time trying to
draw public attention to the hunt.
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- This year her job is more difficult than ever. The hunt
taking place on the so-called "front" off the Newfoundland coast
is largely out of the public eye. Campaigners claim that the Canadian federal
authorities, aware of the controversy created by images of seals being
battered by hunters, have, in effect, scotched their efforts to witness
the hunt by refusing to provide them with permits.
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- An estimated 140,000 harp seals were due to have been
killed by late yesterday with no media or independent observers present
to record the hunt. An additional 100,000 seals will be killed over the
coming days by hunters armed with high-powered rifles and clubs known as
hakapiks.
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- Two decades ago, activists including Brigitte Bardot
brought an effective end to the trade in seal skin products with a campaign
that created a global outcry. In recent years, the hunt has steadily recovered,
boosted by new demand for seal fur products in places such as Eastern Europe.
This year, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has issued
the largest quota for more than a generation. The last time Canadian hunters
killed more than 350,000 animals was in 1956.
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- The hunters accuse their largely urban-based critics
of ignoring the economic practicalities of life in marginal communities.
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- Fishermen in Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence,
where the first phase of the hunt finished 10 days ago after killing 98,000
seals, say the seal harvest brings a much-needed boost to families' incomes.
The federal authorities also dispute accusations that the hunt is inhumane.
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- The DFO says that regulations introduced in recent years
ensure that the animals are dead before they are skinned. New guidelines
also mean that animals less than three weeks old and still with white fur
are not killed. Steve Outhouse, a DFO spokesman, said that a Canadian Veterinary
Medical Association study found that 98 per cent of the seals were killed
"in a medically humane manner with the minimum of pain".
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- Yesterday Mr Outhouse said the DFO had done all it could
to provide permits to those wanting to witness the hunt and had provided
such licences to a BBC film crew. "The hunt is done in a very transparent
way," he said.
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- Ms Aldworth, a campaigner with the International Fund
for Animal Welfare, has visited the hunt for the last five years. In a
speech she made last year outside the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC,
she claimed most Canadians agreed with her that the cull is barbaric.
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- "Many of you are probably wondering how Canadians
can support this kind of cruelty and waste," she said. "The people
inside that embassy will try to tell you that they represent Canadians
on this issue. Well they don't. Because the solid majority of Canadians
are opposed to this slaughter, and 85 per cent believe that seals under
a year of age should be protected from any hunting at all. Canadians have
held rallies, have called their members of parliament, have signed petitions,
have sent letters. But our government refuses to listen."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=511268
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