Wed, 2006-09-06 22:57
National News
By: TARA BRAUTIGAM

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - A declaration signed Wednesday by the European Parliament demanding a ban on seal products was hailed by animal rights activists as the beginning of the end for Canada's centuries-old commercial seal hunt.

The proposal, which has several hurtles to clear before it becomes law, aims to close much of the European market to seal skins and fur, officials said. "The European public is greatly concerned in the way this hunt is taking place," said Carl Schlyter, the Swedish Green Party member who introduced the proposal.

Schlyter said he travelled to Labrador and Quebec where he watched as hunters took part in a "cruel and brutal" slaughter.

"The local population sometimes tried to stop us, but in the end we got some footage and we saw what was happening," Schlyter said in an interview from Strasbourg, France.

Schlyter is now calling on the EU's European Commission to draft a ban.

However, the impact of such a ban remains unclear.

Norway is the largest importer of Canadian seal pelts, but it is not an EU member.

Loyola Hearn, Canada's federal fisheries minister and a Newfoundland MP, called the declaration unimportant, inaccurate, and a long way from becoming a reality.

He reiterated an earlier invitation for EU parliamentarians to come to the province to witness the hunt and talk to sealers and their families.

"If you want to make such a declaration, then at least you'll be making it based upon the truth and the facts, and not upon partial truths, hearsay and 20-year-old videos," Hearn reported.

The European declaration comes less than a week after Hearn visited politicians in Belgium, asking them to reconsider passing such a ban.

In an unusual move, Hearn said he told Belgian politicians that an import ban would amount to "taking the livelihood away from a number of Canadians whose family members left their blood on the fields here in Belgium, Flanders fields and other places" during the First World War.

More than 6,000 Atlantic Canadians were actively involved in the hunt last year. The federal Fisheries Department says the hunt generated $16.5 million in 2005.

In the past three years, the annual hunt - largely based in Newfoundland - has landed almost one million seals, infuriating conservationists and animal rights protesters who say it not sustainable.

The Canadian government insists the hunt is humane, the harp seal population remains strong - estimated at almost six million earlier this year - and the protesters are part of a manipulative, "international propaganda campaign."

In Europe, support for Schlyter's declaration is growing.

The 732 members of the European Parliament have until Sept. 15 to sign the declaration. So far, 394 have done so.

Hearn said many written declarations are put forth, but never acted upon.

"(This one) is not binding on the EU to take any action against the seal hunt or seal products," he said.

"It is simply an expression of opinion actually by some parliamentarians who are unlikely to have the benefit of the other side of the story."

Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands have or are currently implementing national bans on seal products.

Rebecca Aldworth, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, said the move marks the biggest step toward wiping out the hunt since 1983 when the European Commission banned imports of products from harp seals up to two and a half weeks old and hooded seals up to 16 months old.

The ban contributed to the collapse of Canada's sealing industry throughout the 1980s.

"This spells new hope for the seals," Aldworth said of the latest declaration. "The end of Canada's commercial seal hunt is clearly in sight and I would strongly urge the Canadian government to consider at least investigating the possibility of a licence retirement plan for sealers."

The seal hunt this past spring was one of the most turbulent in decades. Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney made a highly publicized visit to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, calling for an end to the slaughter, and former French actress and model Brigitte Bardot re-emerged as a voice against the hunt.

Out on the ice floes, the presence of protesters irked some sealers who resorted to flinging seal guts at observers and, in several cases, attempting to ram the small, inflatable vessels used by protesters and journalists.

Five animal-rights activists were accused of violating their observer permits by getting too close to a sealing vessel in the gulf, but they were never charged with any offences.

Federal officials have said they will review the rules governing the annual hunt, indicating there could be new restrictions placed on observers. But they have repeatedly defended the hunt, saying it is crucial to the survival of aboriginals and provides an economic lifeline for an economically depressed region.

The proposed ban would exempt the traditional Inuit hunt and focus only on commercial hunters, Schlyter said.

MEPs VOTE TO HALT SEAL SLAUGHTER
GREEN PLAN TO BAN EU SEAL FUR IMPORTS WINS MAJORITY SUPPORT

Sept. 6, 2006
Press Release
By Caroline Lucas
Member of European Parliament
South East Region of England

The European Parliament has adopted a proposal by South-East England's Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas designed to halt the annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seals in Canada and Russia.

Lucas, who is also a Vice-President of the RSPCA, which awarded her its ‘Michael Kay Award' earlier this year to mark an ‘outstanding contribution to European animal welfare', co-sponsored a Written Declaration, along with four other parliamentary colleagues, calling for a ban on the import or sale of any products from hooded or harp seals.

Written Declarations are the European Parliament's equivalent of an Early Day Motion in the UK House of Commons. They rarely receive the support of sufficient MEPs to become the parliament's official policy – but with 373 signatures lodged the call for a seal fur import ban has done so two weeks ahead of its parliamentary deadline.

Dr Lucas, also the Green Party's Principal Speaker, said: “This is fantastic news, which brings us a significant step closer to ending the cruel and entirely unnecessary slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seals in Canada and Russia every year.

“I am delighted that a majority of MEPs from all political groups and EU member nations have agreed that this barbaric practice must be ended – and the onus is now on the European Commission to act immediately, as MEPs have demanded, before next year's hunt.”

The declaration, which will be formally adopted later today (Wednesday, September 6 th ) calls for the European Commission to immediately ban the trade in seal body parts and products – a ban already adopted in Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Croatia and the US, and under consideration by the Council of Europe.

Dr Lucas initially proposed the ban after it emerged that more than a million wild harp and hooded seals have been slaughtered in Canada in just the last three years – and over a hundred thousand seal pups have suffered a similar fate in Russia .

She said: “ More than 20 years after the EU banned the import of fur products from the very youngest seal pups, hundreds of thousands of seals pups annually – most just a few weeks old – are clubbed on the ice floes or shot from moving boats as they attempt to flee. Many are skinned alive.

“And every year there is public outrage when pictures of the hunt are broadcast around the world – but the most ‘telegenic' pictures are taken near the end of the annual hunt, and the outrage comes too late for another generation of seals.”

Dr Lucas added: “Banning the import of all seal fur is the only guaranteed way of saving thousands of animals' lives and showing the EU takes animal welfare and protection issues seriously.”