Canada seal hunt protesters 'blockaded in their hotel'

OTTAWA - Activists protesting against Canada's annual seal slaughter said dozens of angry sealers and fishermen had trapped them in their hotel in northeast Quebec yesterday and damaged one of their vehicles.

The activists are demanding an end to the slaughter, during which 325,000 harp seal pups will be shot and beaten to death on ice floes off Canada's Atlantic Coast. Canada's government says the "hunt" helps the local economy and keeps the seal population in check.

Mark Glover from Humane Society International said about a dozen activists and journalists were trapped in a hotel in the port town of Blanc-Sablon, across the Strait of Belle Isle from the island of Newfoundland.

"We're being prevented from leaving by about 60 local angry sealers and fisherman outside. They've wrecked one of the vehicles we were in. It is an extremely dangerous and uncomfortable position to be in," he told CBC television.

Separately, the Humane Society of the United States said a car containing team members and journalists was run off the road into a ditch earlier in the day as it tried to get to a chartered helicopter.

Local police were not immediately available for comment.

Last month a group of activists observing the hunt were arrested for getting too close to hunters.

- REUTERS