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punched in the mouth. Jonny Vasic was hit in the side of the head with a club. Petite Lisa Shalom of Montreal was struck by a sealer as she took pictures of the assault on her crewmates. When another sealer swung a hak-a-pik to strike Jonny Vasic's camera, Dr. Jerry Vlasik (a surgeon for Los Angelos) stepped in his way and took the blow across the face," according to Watson's moblog.
When Captain Watson called the Coast Guard and asked them to investigate the assault, they did not reply. Instead a helicopter was dispatched to arrest the activists. Eleven activists from 5 different nations were arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after 8 sealers assaulted 7 crewmembers. The activists were charged with approaching sealers without a permit and eventually released after refusing to post bail and vowing to refuse food if kept under confinement.
Farley Mowat crewmembers filed charges of assault, battery and assault with a deadly weapon, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. One such assault on activists by sealer Rendell Genge, Captain of the Brady Mariner was caught on two different video cameras, according to Watson. A film crew for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx) was assaulted by another sealer.
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans maintains that their hunt is humane and kills only adult seals. The crew of the Farley Mowat and activists from the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Humane Society of the United States have photographic evidence to the contrary. Captain Watson estimates that 95% of the seals killed are less than 4 weeks old. The international movement to boycott Canadian fish is gaining momentum as seafood distributors, restaurants and individuals are signing on to the Canadian Fish Boycott as a way to protest the cruelty and environmental devastation wreaked by the seal pup slaughter.
Ms. Strickler is a writer and political activist. You can reach her at fiftyplusone@earthlink.net.
Reprinted with the author's permission.
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