Animal activists hold anti- seal fur protest at trade fair

Animal rights activists yesterday held a peaceful protest against Canadian seal products at the annual China Fur & Leather Products Fair in Beijing.

Five volunteers went to the fair, handing out open letters written in both English and Chinese from one booth to another, Zhang Dan, China Animal Protection Media Saloon founder, told the Global Times yesterday.

The seal product trade is the "practice of inhumanity," said the open letter.

About 300 fur companies from both China and abroad participate in the four-day fair, which ends today at the China National Convention Center, near the Olympic Park.

"We also took a banner saying 'Chinese people do not welcome Canadian seal products' and unfurled it when security guards were not looking," Zhang said.

This is the second year Zhang and other animal rights activists have held a peaceful protest at the fair.

Last year, they also distributed an open letter claiming the seal hunt is "morally repulsive" to Gail Shea, Canada's fisheries minister at that time, who attended the fair in order to boost the seal product trade between Canada and China.

Zhang said that she felt their grass-roots activities over the past year, including launching an anti-seal product poster design competition in November, have been useful as "there is only a small booth demonstrating seal products at the fair this year."

"The seal product booth was located in a predominant position at the fair last time," Zhang said, "but this year, it took us a while to find the small booth, which also exhibited other fur products made in North America."

However, there still are seal products sold in China, such as on the online shopping platform Taobao.

A seller surnamed Zhang told the Global Times that he has a number of seal furs imported illegally from Norway, for which he charges about 1,600 yuan ($253) each.