Seal cull boycott attacked

Canada has condemned activists who are organising a boycott of the country's seafood products in protest at the killing of 320,000 young seals this year.

The government says the cull is needed to control a healthy seal population but pictures of hunters clubbing defenceless animals to death has turned the event into a public relations nightmare.

Canada says the two-month hunt, which begins next week on ice floes off the Atlantic coast where the seals give birth, is humane, but animal rights groups insist many animals are skinned alive and die in agony.