EU seal product ban could take 2 years: Canadian ambassador

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I KNEW it was too good to be true!!!

Last Updated: Monday, July 28, 2008

CBC News

Canada's ambassador for fisheries conservation says it could take the

European Union as long as two years to pass an import ban on seal products —

time that the Canadian government will use to lobby against the legislation..

The EU is proposing to ban seal products from countries that practise what

it deems to be inhumane seal hunting, causing unnecessary pain to the

animals.

In Canada, Inuit hunters in Nunavut and sealers in Newfoundland and Labrador

have insisted that seal hunts are humane, sustainable and an important

source of income.

"Canada has the right to defend the legitimate interests of people that

are

earning a living out there, against misinformation and things that are being

spread by NGOs that are absolutely not true and, in many cases, totally

misrepresents the hunt as it occurs in Canada," Ambassador Loyola Sullivan

told CBC News.

While the ban proposes an exemption for products from traditional Inuit seal

hunters, sealers in Nunavut and elsewhere in Canada are worried that the ban

will bring down the seal product market altogether.

Sullivan said the proposed ban must go before the 785 members of the

European Parliament, as well as before a council of 27 member states that

make up the European Union.

Both bodies must agree on the wording of the legislation, along with any

amendments, before it can become law.

"A normal process would take a co-decision up to a year and a half, maybe

over two years before it would come into law," said Sullivan.

Canada will continue to lobby against the proposed ban while the voting

process unfolds, he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/07/28/eu-seal.html

<http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/07/28/eu-seal.html> _______________________

Barry Kent MacKay

Senior Programme Advisor

Born Free USA United with Animal Protection Institute

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6:43 AM

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