Dublin demo backs Bardot over seal slaughter

Irish animal rights activists will back French actress Brigitte Bardot’s call to ban Canada’s annual seal hunt today.

The Animal Rights Action Network (Aran) is to stage a demo outside the Canadian embassy in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

Bardot, 71, is in Ottawa this week to protest at the killing of 325,000 young seals by registered hunters who claim they decimate cod stocks.

The former screen beauty has collected more than 70,000 signatures on a petition to have the hunt stopped.

Aran activists have also called on Irish consumers to boycott Canadian seafood and other goods on sale in supermarkets.

“This could be the last year of the seal hunt if the international community, including Ireland, voices its most strenuous opposition to date,” a Aran spokesman said.

The noon demo will be showing graphic footage of a recent seal hunt on a portable DVD player and monitor.

The Canadian government has confirmed that the seal hunt will begin in the Gulf of St Lawrence this week.