In Canada, the Harassment Continues: Those who Came to Document Baby Seal Slaughter Being Intimidated by Local Population Via Force

Again, it’s just amazing how brutal those who support the baby seal slaughter are. They simply resort to gang intimidation to make sure their agenda is not documented.

If they don’t think that bludgeoning baby seals with picks is bad, then why resort to primal means to prevent the world from seeing it?

Article:

Activists Bemoan Seal Hunt Access

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060414/ap_on_re_
la_am_ca/canada_seal_hunt_1

By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press WriterFri Apr 14, 12:11 AM ET

Animal-rights activists said they were harassed by protesters Thursday and prevented from documenting the Canada's seal hunt, despite police intervention.

Members of the Humane Society of the United States said one of their vehicles was run off the road, while several dozen seal hunt supporters surrounded their hotel and prevented their group from leaving.

Rebecca Aldworth, a spokeswoman for the group, said the police were serving as mediators between the angry fishermen whose livelihoods are supplemented by sales of the seal pelts and blubber — and the Humane Society, which calls the hunt barbaric and wants it halted.

Later in the day, police escorted the 15 activists and journalists from the hotel in the eastern Quebec town of Blanc-Sablon, near the Labrador border, to the airport. But by the time they arrived, their helicopters had already departed.

There were no reports of any injuries linked to the disturbances.

Yvonne Jones, the member of the provincial legislature, acknowledged that fishermen surrounded the hotel but denied that the animal-rights activists were in danger, calling it a "very peaceful protest."

The final leg of the seal hunt moved to Newfoundland on Wednesday, with sealers expected to slaughter another 234,000 harp seal pups. The government insists the annual hunt is humane and sustainable, with a healthy population of 6 million harp seals in the Canadian Maritimes.

Hunters have taken their quota of 91,000 seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence hunt, which ended last week.

Aldworth said a day earlier, protesters surrounded a helicopter leased by the animal-rights group in the coastal town of Cartwright, and prevented it from leaving.

"They sat on the floats of our helicopters," Aldworth said. "We couldn't leave because if we started up the helicopter, the blades could have hurt somebody."