Green | May 05, 2009 | 5 comments

Europe votes to ban seal product trade

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/05/eu-bans-seal-products

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Europe moved today to halt seal-clubbing when MEPs voted overwhelmingly to ban trading in seal products within the European Union. The ban is hoped to force a collapse of the market and drastically reduce the annual seal massacre. Thousands are clubbed to death each year.

The decision to outlaw virtually all trade in seal products was directed mainly at Canada, where the yearly cull kills around 300,000 seals, a practice condemned by many as barbaric.

Canada, which exports several million dollars worth of seal products to the EU, is threatening to take Brussels to the World Trade Organisation because of the ban, which still needs to be endorsed by the EU's 27 national governments. But that support is guaranteed as EU governments agreed the text with the European parliament.

While 90 MEPs voted against the ban or abstained, 550 voted in favour. The trade will be stopped next year.

"This is a political issue that now has its time," said Arlene McCarthy, the Labour MEP. "After a 40-year campaign, Europe has a chance to introduce a ban in all 27 states."

National bans on commercial trading in seal products are already in place in 30 countries including the US, the Netherlands and Italy. Italy is still said to be one of the biggest European importers of seal pelts.
  1. groups:
    Green
  2. tags:
    Green,  Animal Abuse,  Seals,  Climate/Environment
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5 comments // Europe votes to ban seal product trade

  • J_Jammer
  • Ooomill
    • 0
      Ooomill  

    • Banning of an animal hunt should be based only on the status of that species population, the seal population is high and expanding actually in eastern atlantic Canada. It is partly responsible for the big decline of the cod fish population there. Other reasons for the cod decline: overfishing and north atlantic cyclic climate change.

      Many european countries are partly responsible for that overfishing (Spain, Portugal, France ...), when the cod fishing was banned in canadian waters, these countries were still sending fishing ships across the atlantic. It took the intervention of the canadian navy to stop these looters.

      Why should Canada be dictated what to do inside its borders by the European hypocrits. The countries of Europe have done so much to exterminate animal species in their lands and all over the planet. And also exterminate native humans in their lands and all over the world. The Europe Union did nothing to intervene in the yugoslavian civil war. Its only when The United Nations finally intervene, that some European countries send some troops along with american and canadians. Now in Afghanistan, canadian troops are working in the most risky zones, Europeans are in the safe zones, with the exception of the Dutch and French troops but still not so dangerous as the kandahar area.

      An animal hunt is barbaric when it puts that animal population in danger. Is it because the seal is a mammal with big cute eyes that its killing is barbaric? What about the overfishing all over the world in which many European countries are involved? What about the disruption of tribal lands in Nigeria by oil companies like the Dutch Shell?

      I think Europeans are seeking redemption because of THEIR BARBARIC PAST: EXTERMINATIONS, GENOCIDES, WORLD WARS ...

    • 2 years ago
  • jefftego
    • 0
      jefftego  
    • Ooomill:

      Canada is not being told what to do. Rather, the EU has decided it is not interested in products made from seals. The impact of that takes away Canada's market for the products, but if Canada wants to continue to inhumanely club seals for their pelts, they can.

      Seals are not to blame for the collapse of the cod fisheries. This is the same argument that some whaling nations make to argue their pro-whaling stance. Seals and other marine mammals have lived in balance with fish populations for far longer than our introduction of industrial fishing. I'm talking millions of years. If you look at what is happening to fisheries all over the planet, it is quite clear which mammals are removing the fish at an unsustainable rate.

    • 2 years ago
  • jefftego
    • 0
      jefftego  

    • Thanks for posting this. The Canadian seal hunt is barbaric.

      This spring Russia banned its seal hunt. The Canadian seal hunting days are numbered, although Canada is trying to fight the EU ban as much as possible with trade threats.

    • 2 years ago
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