Journal Register, Upstate New York
© 2006 Newspaper Holdings Inc.
Page A1

M O N D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 0 6
BY HOLLY WEBER
weberh@gnnewspaper.com

ALBION, NY —

STOPPING THE SLAUGHTER
Animal acrivist makes Albion a stop in his "funeral" motorcade

"I want the seal hunt to end. We have tried to campaign inside Canada, and it has been very futile... (Americans) may take pride in this country because the United States has banned Canadian seal products for quite a few years already." - Anthony Marr, Canadian anti-animal-slaughter activist

[PHOTO]: MAKING A DIFFERENCE - Animal activist Anthony Marr stands in front of a line of cars containing fellow activists participating in a "Funeral Motorcade for the Slaughtered". Marr is traveling across the United States and Canada for five months, speaking out against the killing of seals by Canadian fishermen. The group stopped in Albion on Friday afaternoon.

Anthony Marr is Canadian, but he is traveling across the United States encouraging Americans to turn their backs on his country. The Vancouver native says his motto is, “I am Canadian — boycott my country.”

Marr has spent much of his life as an activist, spreading awareness of animal slaughter across the world. This time around, it is the killing of seals by Canadian fishermen that has Marr up in-arms. He founded the organization HOPE-CARE, an acronym for “Heal Our Planet Earth —Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions.”

That compassion for animals is what brought him to Albion on Friday. He and some followers will travel to six Canadian provinces and 36 states over the next few months in what Marr calls a “funeral motorcade for the slaughtered.”

Marr painted a picture of the devastation by explaining that if you lined up the 325,000 seals killed in Canada each year, it would form a line 220 miles long which would take four hours driving at highway speed from one end to the other.

“That is how horrendous this whole situation is,” Marr said.

He began his tour in Vancouver in July and had covered 15 states when he arrived in Albion. At each stop, he arranges meetings with other activist groups, some of whom join the motorcade.

Their cars have toy seals strapped to the roof and posters on the doors. Marr met up with the Animal Rights Advocates of Upstate New York, as well as a member of the People for Animals in Syracuse, for a trip beginning in Auburn and ending Friday in Batavia.

Medina native Lois McAllister Baum was among the group. She said people greeted them with “enthusiastic curiosity.”

“They read the signs and ask what it was about,” Baum said.

Baum, who is president of the animal rights group from Rochester, said one man in particular left an impression. “He was so excited to see we were advocating for seals, he had tears in his eyes,” she said.

Seal slaughter isn’t the only issue Marr is fighting against.

“I’ve been to India three times to
help save the Bengal tiger from extinction,” he said. “In Japan I did covert operations against whaling and dolphin capture and slaughter.”

This is his fourth long CARE-tour through the U.S.

SEE SEAL ON PAGE 2A

Anthony Marr, founder
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
Anthony_Marr@yahoo.com
cell while on tour: 415-686-8789
Vancouver # 604-222-1169