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Press release Mar 19, 2009
Today, March 18th 2009, Russian authorities have fully banned the hunt for baby harp seals under 1 year of age, reports VITA Animal Rights Center
The public protest against the hunt for baby harp seals culminated with the campaign started a year ago by Vita, the animal rights protection Center, and involved Russian celebrities (Layma Vaykule, Artemiy Troitskiy, Alyona Sviridova, Alexander F. Sklyar, Victor Gusev) visiting the coast of the White Sea accompanied by a whole helicopter of reporters. The celebrity trip created an unheard-of response in Russian society.
The event was heatedly discussed in the Arhangelsk region all through the year, related media stories were followed by numerous phone calls from various regions of Russia.
The campaign was joined by dozens of drama and cinema actors, musicians, politicians, scientists, athletes. The protest was boosted by Andrey Arshavin; Viktor Gusev encouraged Russians not to remain indifferent to the problem during the broadcast of football matches of "Zenit"-"Spartak" and "Moskva"-"Zenit" teams, and renowned musician Andrey Makarevich negotiated with the administration of the region as well as the Executive office of the President.
For the first time in Russian history rallies in support of the seals were held all over the country. Finally, other countries learned about the Russian seal hunt, having previously known only about a similar problem in Canada.
The goal of the campaign was achieved, change was on the way. Exactly a year later after Vita's press-conference announcing the start of a unique campaign on the White Sea, Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin has announced the full ban on the baby seal hunt: "This is a cruel industry, and it is clear that it should have been banned a long time ago".
VITA Animal Rights Center
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