Heart rendering seal hunt footage wins prestigious Wildscreen Festival film award

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Respect for Animals and the Humane Society International (UK) are delighted that footage shot during the 2005 Canadian seal hunt has won the prestigious Wildscreen International Wildlife & Environmental Film Festival 2006 Campaign Award. The announcement was made at the Gala Awards Ceremony in Bristol last night (Wednesday 18 October).

The film, “Bearing Witness”, made by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), documented the brutal fate of harp seal pups, clubbed to death on the ices floes off the Canadian coast in 2005. During that year alone over 317,000 animals died for their skins, 98.5 per cent of which were only two months of age or younger. Veterinarian reports indicate that many seals have been skinned while still conscious and able to feel pain.

The heart rendering footage, shot on handheld video camera in atrocious weather conditions, shows seal hunters rushing towards the helpless pups and clubbing them, before turning them over to skin them, the bloody carcasses left to rot on the ice. In one sequence, HSUS Director Rebecca Aldworth is seen next to a bludgeoned pup that is choking on its own blood.

The Wildscreen 2006 Campaign Award was collected by Rebecca Aldworth, the Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

Respect for Animals and Humane Society International (UK) Director, Mark Glover, who has himself witnessed firsthand the brutality of the Canadian seal hunt over the last four years, said today: “This hunt is the largest marine mammal hunt in the world - and it deserves immediate international sanction. Over one and a quarter million seal pups have been slaughtered in this brutal way over the last four years - so their young skins can be used for fashion. We are delighted this heartbreaking film has won such a highly prestigious award.”

“Only one month ago a record number of MEPs signed a Written Declaration calling for a ban on the import of seal skins - 425 MEPs - more than any other Written Declaration ever put before the European Parliament.  That Declaration has now gone forward to the Council of Ministers - we look to them to act to ban this slaughter as soon as possible.  It is now time for the UK government to act, and ban the import of all seal products into the UK.”

In 2004, British companies accounted for more than 30 per cent of the value of all EU imports of Canadian sealskins.

Respect for Animals campaigns against the brutal Canadian seal hunt. It is currently running a “Boycott Canada” campaign - asking retailers and the public to boycott all Canadian fish and seafood (the sealers are mostly out of season fishermen, the seal hunt makes up only a very small proportion of their income). For more information: http://www.boycott-canada.com
A similar campaign by the HSUS, in the US, has attracted the support of hundreds of thousands of people, and hundreds of restaurants, shops and companies. (http://www.protectseals.org).

Wildscreen 2006 International Wildlife & Environmental Film Festival: http://www.wildscreenfestival.org

Back