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Canada Seal Hunt Protested in Europe

Senate Moments...

Death of Andrew Johnson

OTTAWA -- The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org ) today congratulated nine European organizations for their participation in a European Day of Action against the seal hunt in Canada. The groups - representing millions of Europeans - mobilized celebrities, eminent politicians, and the general public at events in key European cities.

Organized by prominent animal welfare groups such as Vier Pfoten, Bont voor Dieren, One Voice and Respect for Animals, the European Day of Action included events outside Canadian embassies in London, Paris, Berlin, The Hague, Vienna, Sofia and Bucharest. Participants declared that the international community will not tolerate Canada's escalation of the seal hunt.

"This is only the beginning," IFAW National Director Dr. Rick Smith said. "We've warned of a backlash by the international community and now it's happening. Canada's reputation is on the line."
This year, more seals were killed in Canada than have been in 35 years. Over 307,000 seals are reported killed, 95 per cent under three months of age. The Canadian seal slaughter is the largest marine mammal hunt in the world, and the Canadian government is threatening to raise the 2003 quota.

"Harp and hooded seals are part of the world's shared wildlife legacy," said Marcel Bertsch, National Director of IFAW in Holland. "The Canadian government does not seem to realize that seals are not theirs to take in such a cruel and unsustainable manner. The international community is watching and is beginning to take action against this avaricious, inhumane behaviour."

In Berlin, representatives from Vier Pfoten held up an enormous banner running the length of the block in front of the Canadian embassy, reading "Canada's Shame - Stop the Slaughter". Protesters delivered over 100,000 petitions against the seal slaughter. In London, notable celebrity Chrissie Hynde stood with Members of Parliament and other protesters with a large banner that read, "Shame on Canada - the Bloody Hunt Continues". In Holland, over 100 demonstrators presented 85,000 signatures opposing the hunt to Embassy staff.

A 2001 report released by an international team of veterinarians found that up to 42 per cent of the seals they studied were likely skinned alive. Media, parliamentarians, and other witnesses of the hunt report each year that seals are routinely wounded and left to suffer in agony, conscious seals are dragged across the ice with boathooks, and dead and dying seals are stockpiled.

It is an old favorite among trivia question writers. "Who was the only former American president to serve in the United States Senate?" The answer is identical to that for another popular civics question: "Who was the first president to be impeached in the House and tried by the Senate?"

On July 31, 1875, Senator Andrew Johnson died of a stroke while visiting his daughter in Tennessee. The Tennessee Democrat had first served in the Senate from 1857 to 1862. In the early months of the Civil War, Johnson -- the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union after his state seceded -- was obliged to flee his own state to avoid arrest. When federal troops conquered Nashville, he resigned his Senate seat in March 1862 to accept President Abraham Lincoln's appointment as military governor of Tennessee. He served as vice president for a month in 1865, and as president for the balance of Lincoln's term, until March 4, 1869.

In January 1875, Johnson won back his former Senate seat after a hotly contested struggle that forced the Tennessee legislature through fifty-six separate ballots. On March 5, 1875, Johnson took his Senate oath before the same body that only seven years earlier had failed by a single vote to remove him from the presidency. During the nineteen-day Senate special session, he delivered one major address -- on political turmoil in Louisiana -- and then returned to Tennessee, where he died four months later.

In later years and without much enthusiasm, the Senate periodically considered proposals permitting former presidents to attend Senate sessions, either as at-large members or in some advisory capacity. Finally, in 1963 the Senate adopted Senator Claiborne Pell's amendment to Rule XIX allowing former presidents to address the Senate "upon formal written notice to the Presiding Officer." Although several ex-presidents have stopped by to say hello, none has yet chosen to make a formal address.

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