Helena Spongenberg

The European Commission has turned down an appeal by MEPs to ban seal products across the EU, saying the species is not endangered

BRUSSELS, Belgium; January 26, 2007.- In response to the parliament, the EU executive said that a 1983 EU directive prohibiting the importation of skins of certain young seal pups and related products “provides adequate response” to the parliament’s concerns.

A majority of MEPs voted in September last year in favour of a request for the commission to “immediately draft a regulation to ban the import, export and sale” of seal products in protest against what they call the inhuman and barbaric killing methods of baby seals for their skin only, especially in Canada.

The MEPs suggested that traditional Inuit seal hunting, which only accounts for 3 percent of the current hunt, should be not be covered.

“It is enormously disappointing that the commission seems to have ruled out a ban on seal products at this time, ignoring the parliament’s demands,” said UK green MEP Caroline Lucas in a statement on Friday (26 January).

She added that some EU member states either already have or are considering banning the trade of seal products while the commission itself proposed a ban on cat and dog fur across the 27-nation bloc.

Just yesterday (25 January), Belgium became the first EU country to ban trade in seal pelts – the ban is to come into force in three weeks, much to Canada’s disappointment.

Last year, Canadian fisheries minister Loyola Hearn told Belgian politicians to think about Canadian soldiers who died in Europe during the first world war before slamming the door shut on Canadian seal products, according to the Associated Press.

Swedish green MEP Carl Schlyter, who visited the annual seal hunt in Canada last year along with a delegation from animal rights NGOs said also on Friday that “commercial seal hunting is a brutal and cruel practice, targeting seal pups only a few weeks old.”

He said that an EU ban would be a “crucial step towards ending this barbaric cull.”

The commission says it will take “all necessary steps to ascertain the use of humane hunting standards for seals,” and take action if appropriate.

Italy and Luxembourg have already taken steps to ban trade in seal products, while the UK and the Netherlands are considering action.

(Euobserver)
 

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