Santa Claus today (21 November) launched a new range of salmon farming themed
toys aimed at getting the serious message across that people who buy Scottish
salmon this Christmas will pay for bullets to shoot seals.
Watch a video report online here!
The toys included plush toy dead seals with official “Scot
Gov” death certificates.
A series of “My Little Salmon Farmer”
action figures and accessories including rifles, bullets, chemical drums and
“Scot Gov” seal shooting licences were also unveiled.
For the Christmas dinner table there were packs of “Loch
Stour™” salmon produced in a floating factory farm situated at the end of the
Yellow Brick Road a few miles beyond Brigadoon. Food writer Joanna Blythman was on hand to taste one of the first samples.
John Robins of Animal Concern and Save Our Seals Fund said at the press conference: "Our politicians have been
pushing the industry into the Chinese market without a thought to the damage
the expansion of salmon farming will cause to our marine habitat and the
creatures which inhabit it. There should be a halt to the expansion of salmon
farming at least until a full assessment has been made of the environmental
consequences."
"We could poison our sea lochs for a couple of years profit and
then see the industry collapse when the Chinese Government, which stopped
buying salmon from Norway after Norway awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese
dissident Liu Xiaobo, either start producing their own salmon or realise that
most salmon farms in Scotland are owned by Norwegians."
Following the press conference, Santa hand-delivered a letter to the Scottish Government's office in Edinburgh.
Santa's merry little helpers made their voices heard outside the Scottish Government with a chant of "Stop Shooting Seals!"
The letter – endorsed by Animal Concern, Animal
Concern Advice Line, Bruce Sandison of Scottish Sporting Services (Sutherland),
Ethical Voice for Animals, Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture,
Marine Concern, Orkney Seal Rescue, Save Our Seals Fund, Save Staffa
Archipelago, Scotland for Animals and The Larger Picture (Skye) – requested a moratorium on salmon farm
expansion, a ban on issuing seal shooting licences to salmon farmers and a
demand that humane predator exclusion nets be made compulsory at all salmon
farms.
Further protests will take place in the run up to Xmas outside supermarkets across the UK. Watch out for "My Little Salmon Farmer" Seal Culler Kits – featuring Lars the Norwegian.
For more information on the killing of seals by salmon farms please visit "The Killing Farms"
Watch video reports on the killing of seals – featuring Mark Carter of Marine Concern; John Robins of Save Our Seals Fund and tourist operator Nigel Smith:
Watch online via: “Unnecessary
Seal Deaths – Mark Carter Explains”
Watch online via: “Salmon
Farming Kills Seals!”
Watch online via “Marine
Harvest’s Slaughter of Seals in Loch Alsh, Scotland”