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Canada urges EU to reconsider ban on seal goods

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | July 26, 2009 at 07:02 pm

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Canada has made a last minute appeal to members of the European Union to reconsider the ban on seal products. The 27 member states are expected to endorse the ban tommorrow.

"The government of Canada is gravely concerned that the European Union is continuing to push for a ban on seal products without any consideration of an exemption for Canada's humane and sustainable seal hunt,"said a joint statement from Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea.

Canada reminded the EU member states that the ban will affect the livelihood of many remote Northern communities. Canada emphasized that the EU did not listen to the inuit who have depended on the seal hunt for their livelihood.

Canada warned the EU that if the ban is endorsed it will take up the issue with the WTO.

OTTAWA -- Canada on Sunday made a last-minute plea to members of the European Union to reconsider a proposed ban on seal products.

"The government of Canada is gravely concerned that the European Union is continuing to push for a ban on seal products without any consideration of an exemption for Canada's humane and sustainable seal hunt,"said a joint statement from Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea.

The EU is scheduled to meet Monday in Brussels and it is anticipated that the ban will be endorsed. In May, the 27 member states of the EU agreed to a bill that would regulate the hunt before the next sealing season.

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Babel-Fish

at 21:32 on July 26th, 2009

I have no sympathy for Canada on this issues of culling seals as there is supposedly a need, then selling seal products. If there really is a need to cull then no profits should be made out of this need. I hate to see small seal cubs put to death as the seal is a marvelous creature and should be left alone as its certainly not verminous. The excuses given by Canada to my mind are feeble and using the Inut within that excuse. The annual cull is the reason that a ban is being placed not the fact that Inut kill seals for their own survival and make products that they sell out of the seals they kill for their survival. .

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 03:22 on July 27th, 2009

I'm actually pretty neutral to this issue as I don't knowingly use seal products. I know what it looks like in slaughter houses though wehre cattle and pigs are slaughtered. The difference is those animals aren;t cuddly.

These seal are like mink and reproduce and also attribute to depletion of cod fish stock.

Interestingly enough I just heard that the EU has now officially endorsed the ban. Interestingly enough they apparently made an exemption for the inuit. How do you mark seal as killed by inuit. The spokesperson also said they were not opposed to the killing but only the method.

All I can say the campaign that Heather Mills and others celebrities waged was very successful. The pictures they send out the world were powerful and some 6000 people have lost their livelihood this morning.

Just because you can buy beef and pork and other meat products neatly packaged in a grocery store it doesn't mean those animals weren;t killed.

Barbara McPherson

at 09:10 on July 27th, 2009

The seal industry is pretty minor in Canada but a big deal to a few. If the gov't would remove subsidies that support the seal hunt, then it would die a natural death. Those pictures of the beautiful white coated babies are nice, but the seal hunters have been banned from killing them for years. They must wait until the coat is dark and the young can swim. Perhaps the European Union should look to its own issues before condemning the Canadian seal hunt, starting with the nations that carry on a commercial whale hunt.