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Anti-seal activists under siege
Apr. 13, 2006. 11:35 AM
CANADIAN PRESS
BLANC-SABLON, Que. — Angry supporters of Canada's East Coast seal hunt are making life miserable, and potentially dangerous, for animal rights activists trying to document the hunt off the coast of southern Labrador.
Residents in the Quebec town of Blanc-Sablon, near the Labrador border, have surrounded a small hotel where journalists and members of the Humane Society of the United States are staying.
Rebecca Aldworth, a society spokeswoman, reached inside the hotel Thursday, said the situation was very tense and she was worried about her own safety and the safety of those with her.
Earlier in the day, local residents apparently rammed a van carrying European journalists to the airport where they were scheduled to fly out on a helicopter to photograph the hunt, Aldworth said.
"Thankfully, no one was hurt," she said in an interview.
"They were able to get the van back on the road and returned to the hotel. We're now surrounded by an angry mob. The people outside are intent on preventing us from leaving and our helicopters from leaving."
Aldworth said two police officers are at the scene and she said she is hoping they will escort the journalists and activists to the airport.
"At that point, we will force our way through the crowd into the airport, lock the door and we'll figure out what we'll do then."
Aldworth said this is the second day her group has faced angry crowds determined to stop their activities.
On Wednesday, a group of Labradorians surrounded a helicopter leased by the animal rights group in the coastal town of Cartwright, Nfld., 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."
Police moved in and persuaded 50 local residents to allow the aircraft to leave.
Rosetta Holwell, the mayor of Cartwright, said she didn't accept the group's claim it was there to film a documentary about climate change.
The seal hunt in Newfoudland and Labrador opened Wednesday over a vast area north of the island known as the Front.
"They're doing this on the day the seal fishery is opened and they've come to Cartwright and, as everyone knows, there are a great many of our boats from the whole province that are situated a few miles from the Front engaging in the seal harvest," she said.
Federal Fisheries Department officials estimate 255 to 270 large boats were involved in the hunt, most of them working the ice floes off Cartwright in Labrador.
Another 350 small boats were out as well, most of those further south.
Regina Flores of the Intgernational Fund for Animal Welfare, which is also documenting the hunt, said Thursday her group is not having the same difficulties as the Humane Society of the United States.
Flores said the IFAW is operating out of Goose Bay, Labrador, and has been able to document the first two days of the annual hunt.
Protest groups have said they will monitor the slaughter by flying overhead in helicopters.
Sealers from Newfoundland and Labrador are permitted to slaughter a total of 230,000 seals in this year's hunt on the Front.
Another 91,000 seals already have been killed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence hunt, which finished last week.
