Activists angry at being caught on tape

[hop 0]

Activists angry at being caught on tape

Seen in documentary ignoring dying seal for more than an hour

Mike De Souza, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Monday, March 05, 2007


Animal rights activists are outraged they were caught on tape ignoring a dying seal for more than an hour and featured in a documentary on Canada's commercial seal hunt, Quebec filmmaker Raoul Jomphe said.

He said the activists were filming a promotional segment for a fundraising campaign when the incident occurred.

Mr. Jomphe said Rebecca Aldworth, the Canadian director of wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States, called him to complain after she discovered he had captured the incident on film.

"She was really mad at me," said Mr. Jomphe.

That made him question her tactics as he put together his documentary, which examines the annual spring hunt in Atlantic Canada.

"I find it to be hypocritical," said Mr. Jomphe, after a special screening of the movie -- Phoques, le film (Seals, the movie) -- last week at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

In the documentary -- which is scheduled to air later this month on the CBC's French-language all-news network, RDI, and Atlantic Radio-Canada stations -- the animal rights activists pulled the dying seal out of the water as it tried to escape, and continued filming their promotional video. It is not known how the seal was wounded.

"If I had been on the ice with my family and kids, I would have told them to turn around, and I would have killed the seal myself, because it was disturbing for me to see that," Mr. Jomphe said.

Ms. Aldworth insisted she didn't want the animal to suffer.

"I asked somebody to pull the seal out, because at that point I was thinking there might be a chance of getting the seal back to land," Ms. Aldworth said in the documentary. "If this seal could still crawl, an hour later, could still swim, maybe there was a chance we could bring the seal back to the Atlantic Veterinary College and save the seal."

Mr. Jomphe's documentary compares techniques used by the hunters to instantly kill their prey with graphic images of animals killed in slaughterhouses. It also focuses on resources and advertising revenues of animal protection groups in their ongoing campaigns.

"I knew that we had to look on the other side of the medallion to see what was happening," said Mr. Jomphe. "Groups focus on the part of the hunt, a weak percentage, that is not as well executed. ... It's an image that's exaggerated."

Federal officials have long maintained that the hunt is well-monitored and sustainable, with a seal population of nearly six million.

The Ottawa Citizen 2007

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=5a5f1196-f308-4059-8943-d1dcff0ae321

[Animal 0]

Il tente de descendre les activistes en les accusant d'avoir sorti ce phoque de l'eau et l'avoir laissé sur la banquise, alors que lui l'aurait tout simplement achevé, mais il se descend lui-même car ça prouve que les phoques ne sont pas tués d'un seul coup !

[Animal 0]

OTTAWA - Animal-rights activists are considering legal action to block a
controversial documentary on Canada's commercial seal hunt on RDI, the CBC's French-language news network.


Phoques, le film, (Seals, the movie), produced by Quebec filmmaker Raoul Jomphe,
has ruffled feathers at the Humane Society of the United States, because of a
scene showing members of the group watching a dying seal for more than an hour
as they filmed a promotional video of the hunt on ice floes in Atlantic Canada.

But Rebecca Aldworth, the director of Canadian wildlife issues for the Humane
Society, said the scene was edited in a way that distorts what happened, and
their lawyer has sent a letter to CBC asking it to take a look at the complete
footage to ensure the documentary is balanced before it is scheduled to be
broadcast on March 29.

Although Jomphe criticized the animal-rights group for not euthanizing the seal,
Aldworth said that would have meant breaking the law.

"What he (Jomphe) doesn't tell you is that it would have been illegal for us to
do so," she said Monday.

"Under the marine mammal regulations, only people with sealing licences can kill
seals. But more importantly, we didn't have the means or the equipment or the
expertise to do that in a way that would not simply increase that animal's
suffering."

Aldworth said she initially decided not to rescue the seal, because she believed
it wouldn't survive a helicopter ride to a veterinary hospital. More than an
hour later, she said she realized it could be treated.

"Just as we were making arrangements to fly this seal back, the sealers came
back and clubbed a lot of live seals in the area, including this one, and
stabbed it through the skull with a metal spike," she said. "We go up there to
protect these animals and to try and stop this hunt, because this is something
that happens so frequently in the course of this slaughter ... and to have
somebody edit a sequence of events to suggest that we would ever prolong the
suffering of an animal to get video footage is obscene."

She added that there were numerous inaccuracies in the documentary, including
suggestions that the president of the Humane Society earns a salary of about
$500,000, which she said is nearly twice the actual amount.

Guylaine O'Farrell, a spokeswoman for CBC, said the public broadcaster could
delay the documentary's air date if necessary, but explained this is part of a
normal, in-house review process.

"It's for sure that we always reserve the right to make changes," she said. "The
broadcast date is not finalized for now."

Meantime, Jomphe said he doesn't think anything needs to be changed in the
movie, which was presented at a special screening for employees of the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans last week in Ottawa.

"The images speak for themselves," he said, pointing out that he included
Aldworth's explanation about wanting to transport the seal to a hospital. "When
they take images of hunters, they do editing, and that's what we see ... and
suddenly she's all offended that she's being filmed in that way."

Aldworth compared the incident to being in a war zone with people dying, and no
equipment or means to help them. "There are no right answers for the seals in
those situations and that's why we're trying to shut this down," she said.

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Mais comment a t-elle été informée avant sa sortie de ce qui se passe précisément dans ce film ?

[Animal 0]

Le film a été présenté aux chasseurs des Iles de la Madeleine et de Terre-Neuve, mais aussi aux journalistes qui avaient été invités par le Département de Pêches et Océans Canada afin de se faire expliquer les vraies choses concernant la chasse au phoque ... Ça se pourrait bien que ça soit l'un de ces journalistes qui lui ait fourni ces infos...

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Ah ! Merci ! Mais c'est presque comme si elle l'avait vu avec tous ces détails qu'elle en ressort.