Anti-Fur Coalition rally
Photo: Ronen Machleb
Israelis rally outside Canadian Embassy against 'barbaric' seal hunt
Kids wave handmade signs reading, 'Don’t Kill Babies for Fashion and Money' during annual demonstration organized by International Anti-Fur Coalition. Group claims sealers made obscene gestures at animal rights observers just before slicing pups open
The International Anti-Fur Coalition (IAFC), with assistance from its local associate "Let the Animals Live," held its annual rally on April 29 at the Canadian Embassy in Tel-Aviv against the "brutal slaughter of baby seals."
The Canadian ambassador's press agent Signe Katz came out to greet IAFC representative Mitzi Ocean and was handed an envelop filled with letters calling on Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper to end the slaughter.
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Among those present at the rally were numerous school children, who waved their handmade posters and drawings bearing the key message, "Don’t Kill Babies for Fashion and Money."
According to Ocean, this year's hunt "was more barbaric than in previous years, with a total disregard for even the inadequate laws provided for the doomed pups that are being dragged by hooks through their faces to be skinned, frequently still conscious, their little flippers clenched in anguish and fear."
The IAFC claims that the sealers, just before slicing open the pups, blatantly made obscene gestures at the animal rights observers in the helicopters above. This year they could find only one buyer, with merely 28 boats going out, a significant decrease from prior years of around 1000 boats, the group claimed.
IAFC said and end to the seal hunt would also Canada would also bring an end to the global boycott on the country's seafood. "Canada would regain its reputation as a civilized nation that considers the voice of their people and that of world opinion," the group said.
According to IAFC, half of the sealers are in favor of a federal buyout of the commercial sealing industry, which would compensate them for any lost income.
For more information: www.antifurcoalition.org
