Canadian protestors strip off to save seals
Sat Mar 15, 4:38 PM ET
MONTREAL (AFP) - Animal rights protestors stripped off in the centre of Montreal Saturday to protest against the resumption of seal-hunting in Canada, as the government accused opponents of the hunt of "misinformation."
Braving freezing temperatures and snow, four nude members of the Concordia Animal Rights Association (CARA) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) held up a banner reading: "The naked truth: Canada slaughters seals."
"I'll gladly expose my skin if it will help save seals skins," said protestor Melissa Galianos, adding that the fur trade in general was "one of the cruellest industries on the planet."
However Fishing Minister Loyola Hearn preempted the action -- part of an international day of protest -- with a statement Saturday condemning opposition arguments as "based largely on questionable studies and emotional rhetoric."
He stressed the "important contribution that sealing makes to the success of fishing families" and noted it was an "important cultural tradition.". He said these arguments should be heard "above the din of anti-sealing misinformation."
Canada last week set a limit for its annual seal harvest this year of 275,000 harp seals and announced new rules to make the slaughter less cruel. The hunt usually kicks off in late March or April in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The European Union is currently weighing a ban on seal imports that could devastate the industry, following the lead of Belgium and the Netherlands, although new markets have opened up in recent years in China and Russia.
加拿大人为海豹裸体抗议
加拿大蒙特利尔市，上周六，一群抗议者脱掉衣服在市中心，抗议政府恢复在加拿大捕杀海豹。
顶着低温和白雪，四个来自肯考迪娅动物权利协会和善待动物协会的裸体成员站在一起，手拿国旗（图片），旗帜上还写得有“赤裸裸的真相：加拿大屠杀海豹。”
一位抗议者美利纱 佳连诺斯说：“只要能救海豹，我很乐意裸体。”她把地球上的皮毛交易比作最残酷的行业之一。
但是鱼业部长乐哟拉 赫恩声称抗议者的消息来源是不可靠的，他们的是在煽动大家的情绪。他反复强调，猎捕海豹对渔业非常重要，而且是一项非常重要的传统文化，他说人们听到的消息都是误传。
在上周，加拿大设置了猎杀海豹的上限27万只，还宣布了新的规则使屠杀少一些残酷。屠杀将会在3月末或4月初在南边的海湾进行。
欧盟宣布了一条禁止进口海豹的条列，希望能摧毁这个行业，如比利时和荷兰，但近年来新的出口市场已经被打开，如中国、俄罗斯。
