Animal rights activist angers fur trappers

Edmonton, Alberta

Environmentalist Paul Watson angered Aboriginal people as he attacked trapping as a livelihood during his animal rights speech as the University of Alberta March 29.

Watson, an animal rights activist, is a former member of Green Peace and founder of the Sea Shepards society.

Native people will not stand idly by while Watson campaigns to destroy their way of life, said executive director Bob Stevenson of the Aboriginal Trappers Federation of Canada during a question and answer period.

He also told Watson to stop claiming to speak on behalf of Native people.

Leaflets circulated amongst the audience quote Watson as saying 'Native people don't like trapping.'

"The position of the American Indian Movement (AIM) is that trapping is a whiteman's industry and Indians shouldn't be involved in it."

Stevenson pointed out that Watson's campaign against the seal hunt caused Inuit communities to lose up to 80 per cent of their income.

"How do you put a dollar value on cultural genocide?" he asked Watson.