Environment

250 anti-seal hunt protesters rally outside EU headquarters in Brussels

by Amy Judd | July 1, 2008 at 10:53 am

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Around 250 anti-seal hunt protestors gathered outside the European Union headquarters in Brussels today to demand that the 27 EU countries impose a ban on imports of all seal products from Canada and other other countries that allow seal culls every year.

The seal hunting season opened in Namibia today too.

I'm sure many would disagree with me, but I think all seal culls should be stopped - I hate even hearing about these events every year.

Of course, feel free to disagree with me below.

The EU is under pressure from animal rights groups and legislators at the European Parliament to take action over the seal hunt, which they say is cruel and inhumane.

The activists have called for a total hunting ban that would affect Canada, which has the world's largest commercial hunt, along with Russia, Namibia and Greenland and EU members Finland and Sweden.

The EU's environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, is expected to propose a partial ban. It would prohibit the sale of products from seals the EU determines have been killed inhumanely, or culled in hunts that it considers not sustainable.

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rpshen

at 11:03 on July 1st, 2008

I agree with you Amy. Seals should not be hunted.

Also, I uploaded some videos of other protests that have happened this year in Calgary, Canada and in Zagreb.

Pat202 (not verified)

at 06:43 on July 23rd, 2008

I find it funny that people get so motivated when they see a cute seal being hunted. My problem is that people stay clear of real problems like the ones haunting the sharks in our oceans. 90% of the shark population has been depleted due to the need for "Shark fin soup" as well as brutal fishing practices. Sharks are one the oldest predators in the world and have slow reproduction rates which makes it difficult for them to rebound from such mass killing. We all know that predators at the top of the food chain play an integral roll in the health of the entire world but because they kill 5-10 people a year tops their are no anti-shark killing campaigns like the anti-seal hunt campaign in Europe which shows the real problem that humans only want the cute animals on the planet but if they can do us harm and we can't pet them, we don't see the problem. I am all for stopping the pointless slaughter of animals but for me and a small group of people it doesn't stop with the cute and cuddly.