Seal hunt activists ‘run off the road’

THE final leg of Canada’s contentious seal hunt moved to the ice floes off north-eastern Newfoundland and Labrador yesterday, with sealers expected to slaughter a further 234,000 harp seal pups in one day.

Animal rights activists said their vehicle carrying foreign journalists was run off the road as they were making their way to their helicopter to document the hunt.

They were then trapped in their hotel.

Members of the Humane Society of the United States said about 60 supporters of the seal hunt, which has moved to the ice floes off the north-eastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, surrounded their hotel in Blanc-Sablon, Quebec, a small town near the Labrador border.

Rebecca Aldworth, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, was reached inside the motel and said the situation was tense.

The activists were there to document the final phase of the annual cull, which the Canadian government insists is humane and sustainable, with a healthy population of over six million harp seals.

Ms Aldworth was not on the ice, however, as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has accused her of disturbing the hunt and declined to issue her an observation permit.