EU seeks to halt cruelty to seals
-
-
- jefftego
- added this
The European Commission has proposed that the EU ban all trade in seal products from countries that fail to meet high animal welfare standards.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for a ban on seal products obtained through "cruel hunting methods", which he called "repugnant".
Canada warned the EU not to "bow to misinformation and emotional rhetoric".
Canada kills about 300,000 seals annually off its east coast. It is the biggest such hunt in the world.
In the EU, seal-hunting is practised in Sweden, Finland, the Danish territory of Greenland and in the UK.
Mr Dimas said he hoped the ban would take effect before Canada's 2009 hunting season. He said his office received thousands of demands for a ban - mostly from campaigners in the UK, the US and Canada.
Anti-hunt campaigners say some seals are skinned while still conscious. Hunters typically shoot the seals with rifles or bludgeon them to death with spiked clubs. The animals' pelts, fat and meat are traded.
Canada's Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn insisted on Wednesday that Canada has "a humanely conducted hunt".
The EU ban - not yet approved by the European Parliament and EU ministers - would not apply to Canada's Arctic Inuit community.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for a ban on seal products obtained through "cruel hunting methods", which he called "repugnant".
Canada warned the EU not to "bow to misinformation and emotional rhetoric".
Canada kills about 300,000 seals annually off its east coast. It is the biggest such hunt in the world.
In the EU, seal-hunting is practised in Sweden, Finland, the Danish territory of Greenland and in the UK.
Mr Dimas said he hoped the ban would take effect before Canada's 2009 hunting season. He said his office received thousands of demands for a ban - mostly from campaigners in the UK, the US and Canada.
Anti-hunt campaigners say some seals are skinned while still conscious. Hunters typically shoot the seals with rifles or bludgeon them to death with spiked clubs. The animals' pelts, fat and meat are traded.
Canada's Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn insisted on Wednesday that Canada has "a humanely conducted hunt".
The EU ban - not yet approved by the European Parliament and EU ministers - would not apply to Canada's Arctic Inuit community.
-
- tags:
- Canada, EU, Seals, Humane Animal Treatment
