Watership Down star Briers gives voice to seals' right to a Good Life

Published on Sunday 20 September 2009 22:15

AS the voice of Fiver in hit movie Watership Down, Richard Briers convinced a generation of children that rabbits were more than simply vermin to be shot.

Now Briers, who also helped popularise self-sufficiency in The Good Life, is hoping to repeat the trick 30 years later, this time with Scottish seals.

The theatre and TV veteran has provided voices for A Seal's Fate: Bonnie's Tale, part of a new campaign to stop the shooting of seals off the coast of Scotland.

The unashamedly sentimental cartoon is the main plank of Edinburgh-based animal charity Advocates for Animals' Look Out for Seals campaign.

But the project has sparked an angry reaction from fishermen, who claim seals devastate their catches and pose a major threat to fishstocks.

Briers said: "I thought it was lovely, charming and moving.

"I think the shooting of seals is absolutely awful, especially during their breeding seasons. These beautiful creatures are defenceless – the whole thing is a dreadful shame."

The campaigners say that thousands of common and grey seals are shot off the Scottish coast every autumn.

But fishermen were angered by the portrayal of the animals, which they say eat thousands of fish and reduce their catches, as cute cartoon characters.

They argue that seal numbers are soaring, and that the mammals devastate fish stocks – especially salmon on fish farms.

John Hermse, of the North West Fishermen's Association, claimed that booming seal numbers were a major threat to jobs. "The seals are a menace," he said. "They take a lot of fish, and in some rivers salmon numbers have been greatly reduced.

"It is not just fishermen who are affected. Fish farms can lose thousands of pounds worth of fish to seals.

"Frankly, portraying them as cuddly cartoon characters doesn't help the debate one bit."

Advocates for Animals chief executive Fiona Ogg said: "Richard Briers' support for our Look Out for Seals campaign is invaluable and we hope this animation will inspire many more people in Scotland to join us in calling for the Scottish Government to ban the shooting of these beautiful creatures."

The group's media coordinator, James Knight, said Briers had been chosen for the campaign specifically because of his memorable performance as Fiver in Watership Down.

He said: "As an homage to Watership Down, A Seal's Fate is crafted in the same style of animation, whilst the powerful, entrancing tones of Richard Briers deliver the gravitas and sincerity needed to pull off what might otherwise be dismissed as 'another animal story'.

"It is not – it is based on real life events that occur along the Scottish coast every day."

The viral cartoon will be launched later this week and can be found at www.lookoutforseals.org