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Beijing - Former Baywatch star and animal activist Pamela Anderson has called on China to join other countries in banning imports of seal meat and oil from her native Canada, calling seal-hunting inhumane.
Anderson sent a letter to China's minister of land and resources, Xu Shaoshi, inviting him to accompany her to Canada to witness the "cruelty of the aRose Farquharnnual seal slaughter".
"Please don't allow China to become a dumping ground for seal meat and oil products that even Canadians don't want," the letter said.
Canada and China reached an agreement earlier this year on Chinese imports of seal meat and oil after the European Union banned seal products following an activist outcry over commercial seal-hunting.
In her letter to Xu, released on Tuesday by the animal rights group PETA, Anderson said many of the seals, some just months old and unable to escape, were bludgeoned to death with clubs that have sharp spikes mounted on them.
The Canadian government maintains that the 350-year-old commercial seal hunt is humane and crucial for some 6000 North Atlantic fishermen who rely on it for up to 35% of their total annual income.
PETA
Anderson, a buxom Canadian sex symbol who gained fame as a Playboy magazine "playmate" and then on the US beach-rescue TV series Baywatch, is a prominent animal rights activist.
Earlier this year she appealed, through PETA, to India's top medical institute to retire old monkeys used in scientific research, and last year called on Israel's ultra-orthodox Jews to abandon their traditional fur hats.
By authorising seal meat and oil imports, China joined Japan and South Korea as new markets for Canadian seal products.
China's government had no immediate response to Anderson's appeal.
Anderson sent a letter to China's minister of land and resources, Xu Shaoshi, inviting him to accompany her to Canada to witness the "cruelty of the aRose Farquharnnual seal slaughter".
"Please don't allow China to become a dumping ground for seal meat and oil products that even Canadians don't want," the letter said.
Canada and China reached an agreement earlier this year on Chinese imports of seal meat and oil after the European Union banned seal products following an activist outcry over commercial seal-hunting.
In her letter to Xu, released on Tuesday by the animal rights group PETA, Anderson said many of the seals, some just months old and unable to escape, were bludgeoned to death with clubs that have sharp spikes mounted on them.
The Canadian government maintains that the 350-year-old commercial seal hunt is humane and crucial for some 6000 North Atlantic fishermen who rely on it for up to 35% of their total annual income.
PETA
Anderson, a buxom Canadian sex symbol who gained fame as a Playboy magazine "playmate" and then on the US beach-rescue TV series Baywatch, is a prominent animal rights activist.
Earlier this year she appealed, through PETA, to India's top medical institute to retire old monkeys used in scientific research, and last year called on Israel's ultra-orthodox Jews to abandon their traditional fur hats.
By authorising seal meat and oil imports, China joined Japan and South Korea as new markets for Canadian seal products.
China's government had no immediate response to Anderson's appeal.
