Europe mulls ban on seal products Wednesday

[Guest guest]

 

ottsun.canoe.ca/Money/2008/07/13/6145506.html

 

 

 

 

Sun, July 13, 2008

Future of sealing industry hangs in balance

Europe mulls ban on seal products Wednesday

 

 

 

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

 

 

ST. JOHN�S, N.L. � For animal welfare activists, this week could mark the first step to ending the largest marine mammal slaughter in the world. For Canada�s commercial seal hunters, it could represent the triumph of emotion over reason. The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, is expected to discuss legislation Wednesday that aims to prohibit the import of seal products. What�s decided in the Berlaymont, an ornate 14-storey office tower in Brussels, Belgium, could have a far-reaching impact on outports throughout Atlantic Canada. �It�s the epitome of hypocrisy,� said Jim Winter, a long-time advocate of the sealing industry.

 

 

 

 

 

�It just goes to prove that the European parliamentarians and the European bureaucracy are owned by the animal rights groups, multimillion-dollar, American-based organizations that have been spreading propaganda in Europe now for decades.� His views are echoed by many sealers who accuse both levels of government of lacking the political will to defend their centuries-old industry and way of life. �Our own governments have let us down immensely,� said Jack Troake, who has hunted seals off the coast of Twillingate, N.L., since 1951. �If the ban goes in place, it�s going to be interesting to see what Canada is going to do, to see what kind of a stand they�ll take. I suspect it�s not going to be nothing.� A spokesman for federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said the minister would not comment until the EU votes on the proposed ban. Trevor Taylor, acting fisheries minister in Newfoundland and Labrador, has called on the federal government to launch trade sanctions against Europe if the EU approves of a ban. He has complained that Ottawa has remained silent while animal rights activists in Europe rallied support for a ban. �At the end of the day, the buck stops at the federal government level,� Taylor said. Premier Danny Williams and Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik wrote the prime minister in April, calling on him to ban the use of the hakapik from the annual hunt in the interests of defending its image. Taylor, himself a sealer before entering politics, said his province has yet to hear a response. In a brief statement on Friday after the federal government was criticized by Newfoundland and Labrador for not speaking up, Hearn said the federal government has shown its commitment to sealers on the international stage. �We will continue to lead with a strong voice and strong actions on behalf of the sealers and the sealing industry,� he said. Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper also said he raised the seal hunt with European Commission president Jose Barroso, and told him that EU member nations should carefully consider any measure that would restrict the sale of seal products within their borders. Over the past two years, the federal and provincial governments have joined forces to lobby the EU in the hope of thwarting any legislation that would close its borders to Canadian seal products. �Big deal,� retorts Winter. �What did you achieve?� In January 2007, the province hailed the European Commission for refusing to draft a prohibition on seal products. But since then momentum has shifted in favour of animal rights organizations that have waged a decades-long fight to end the commercial seal trade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STAPLES supports this:

 

http://www.myspace.com/fortheanimals7