Trial Of Seal Hunt Observers Threatens Right To Witness Annual Slaughter

Five defendants are set to stand trial in the Magdalen Islands Thursday, accused of violating their observation permits during the 2006 East Coast seal hunt. The defendants are representatives of the Humane Society International and Humane Society of the United States. After documenting the commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in March, 2006, from their vessel, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) charged them with violating a 10-metre barrier restriction around sealing vessels and sealers. The defendants - Canadians Rebecca Aldworth and Andrew Plumbly, Americans Chad Sisneros and Pierre Grzybowski, and British citizen Mark Glover - were present on the ice floes to bear witness to the annual cruelty of the seal slaughter, providing video evidence of baby seals being clubbed and skinned alive to concerned citizens around the world. The charges against them are part of an effort by the Canadian government to close the curtain on this gruesome enterprise. The defendants look forward to the trial, in which their counsel will introduce video evidence disproving the charges