ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - An animal rights group documenting the annual seal slaughter off southern Labrador pulled out Friday, saying protesters felt threatened after confrontations with local hunt supporters.
They left as the kill ended for most large vessels and at least one fleet of smaller sealing boats, when hunters filled about two-thirds of their quota.
A spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said a helicopter carrying anti-sealing activists was confronted a day earlier while trying to refuel in the Labrador community of Cartwright.
Regina Flores said angry residents surrounded their helicopter at two locations. They were eventually allowed to refuel but were told not to come back.
"Because we knew they wouldn't refuel us again, we couldn't go back out to continue to get footage because we wouldn't be able to get a source of fuel," Flores said Friday afternoon between flights in Halifax.
"I'm going to be on my way back to our headquarters in Ottawa to focus on reviewing the footage we did get in the first two days to look for any violations."
On Wednesday, the first day of the hunt on an area known as the Front, a helicopter carrying members of the Humane Society of the United States was also confronted in Cartwright.
Mayor Rosetta Holwell confirmed both incidents.
She said residents did not want outsiders interfering with a legal hunt.
"This is a Canadian-sanctioned hunt," Holwell said Friday.
"We elect politicians and they've made laws, and these people are coming here and telling us our laws our wrong."
Holwell said residents of Cartwright, many of whom are involved in the hunt, worried that protesters would endanger lives on the ice.
Sealers from Newfoundland and Labrador are allowed to kill 230,000 seals in this year's hunt on the Front - a vast area north of Newfoundland.
About 275 large sealing vessels and as many as 300 smaller vessels have been on the Front. Vessels larger than 11 metres long were told Friday evening their hunt was over. Fisheries officials said up to 200 small boats still had quota left.
The hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence ended last week after 91,000 seals were killed.
Both hunts have been marked with sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and sealers.
On Thursday, about 80 residents in the eastern Quebec community of Blanc-Sablon surrounded a small hotel where foreign journalists and members of the Humane Society of the United States were staying.
Quebec provincial police officers later escorted the 15 activists, reporters and photographers a nearby airport.
Humane society spokeswoman Rebecca Aldworth criticized police for not acting sooner.
"By the end of the afternoon, the damage had already been done," said Aldworth, who said her group planned on filing a complaint.
"Their refusal to bring us to the airport early in the day cost us our ability to go to the ice floes and document the hunt."
Aldworth was arrested along with several colleagues during the gulf hunt last month, and also claimed that a gulf sealing vessel had rammed a Zodiac inflatable boat carrying protesters and journalists.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n041419A.xml
I don't support some actions like what Paul McCartney did but I don't support Canada's seal hunt but I believe it should continue until another occupation or a 'decreased' limit of seal hunting or more regulations can be reached but the reactions by these seal hunters and their supporters in Quebec and Newfoundland are sad and could have gotten people killed.
They claim they were trying to spare people's lives but they didn't give a damn if someone was killed. They should have been arrested. Lazy cops.
They left as the kill ended for most large vessels and at least one fleet of smaller sealing boats, when hunters filled about two-thirds of their quota.
A spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said a helicopter carrying anti-sealing activists was confronted a day earlier while trying to refuel in the Labrador community of Cartwright.
Regina Flores said angry residents surrounded their helicopter at two locations. They were eventually allowed to refuel but were told not to come back.
"Because we knew they wouldn't refuel us again, we couldn't go back out to continue to get footage because we wouldn't be able to get a source of fuel," Flores said Friday afternoon between flights in Halifax.
"I'm going to be on my way back to our headquarters in Ottawa to focus on reviewing the footage we did get in the first two days to look for any violations."
On Wednesday, the first day of the hunt on an area known as the Front, a helicopter carrying members of the Humane Society of the United States was also confronted in Cartwright.
Mayor Rosetta Holwell confirmed both incidents.
She said residents did not want outsiders interfering with a legal hunt.
"This is a Canadian-sanctioned hunt," Holwell said Friday.
"We elect politicians and they've made laws, and these people are coming here and telling us our laws our wrong."
Holwell said residents of Cartwright, many of whom are involved in the hunt, worried that protesters would endanger lives on the ice.
Sealers from Newfoundland and Labrador are allowed to kill 230,000 seals in this year's hunt on the Front - a vast area north of Newfoundland.
About 275 large sealing vessels and as many as 300 smaller vessels have been on the Front. Vessels larger than 11 metres long were told Friday evening their hunt was over. Fisheries officials said up to 200 small boats still had quota left.
The hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence ended last week after 91,000 seals were killed.
Both hunts have been marked with sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and sealers.
On Thursday, about 80 residents in the eastern Quebec community of Blanc-Sablon surrounded a small hotel where foreign journalists and members of the Humane Society of the United States were staying.
Quebec provincial police officers later escorted the 15 activists, reporters and photographers a nearby airport.
Humane society spokeswoman Rebecca Aldworth criticized police for not acting sooner.
"By the end of the afternoon, the damage had already been done," said Aldworth, who said her group planned on filing a complaint.
"Their refusal to bring us to the airport early in the day cost us our ability to go to the ice floes and document the hunt."
Aldworth was arrested along with several colleagues during the gulf hunt last month, and also claimed that a gulf sealing vessel had rammed a Zodiac inflatable boat carrying protesters and journalists.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n041419A.xml
I don't support some actions like what Paul McCartney did but I don't support Canada's seal hunt but I believe it should continue until another occupation or a 'decreased' limit of seal hunting or more regulations can be reached but the reactions by these seal hunters and their supporters in Quebec and Newfoundland are sad and could have gotten people killed.
They claim they were trying to spare people's lives but they didn't give a damn if someone was killed. They should have been arrested. Lazy cops.
