European Parliament approves ban on seal products

Tuesday, May 5, 2009


The European Parliament has passed a bill that will ban the import of seal products, a move that could have severe implications for Canada's annual seal hunt.


An activist of the International Fund For Animal Welfare poses with a seal cap in front of a huge inflatable seal outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.



The bill passed the European Union assembly by a 550-49 vote on Tuesday.

The legislation, which states that commercial seal hunting is "inherently inhumane," is expected to be endorsed by EU governments in the coming weeks to ensure the ban is in place before next year's hunt.

The pending approval by the countries' parliament is seen as a formality by many because national envoys already endorsed the bill in Tuesday's vote.

The ban will apply to all products and processed goods derived from seals, including their skins, which are used to make fur coats, meat, oil blubber, organs and even omega-3 pills made from seal oil.

(full article) (Note* - when I just checked the link, they had changed the headline and the first paragraph).

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/05/05/eu-seal-ban-505.html

(This is great news. The European Union are my heroes).

Video of a beautiful baby Grey Seal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02LHFLVg7kQ

:thumbsup:

Your sig line: "Sedna, Inuit Protectress of the Sea Animals"

http://www.sealhunt.ca/Articles/Article_Inuit_Critical_of_McCartney.html

(A somewhat random link to a report about the Inuit connection with the seal hunt)

Canadian Press
Monday, March 13, 2006
5:19 PM ET

IQALUIT, Nunavut (CP) - Two Inuit leaders say pop star Paul McCartney's recent campaign against the Canadian seal hunt is silly and disrespectful to wildlife.

... "Inuit hunt seals for food and clothing, and we market internationally the by-products of our sustainable hunt. This is why attacking the commercial harvest on Canada's East Coast and attempting to destroy the market for seal products also affects the Inuit seal hunt in the Arctic," she said.

An Inuit "protrectress of the sea animals" would be protecting them so that the Inuit could harvest them -- NOT protecting them from the Inuit.


I'm also curious about your "Video of a beautiful baby Grey Seal".

You're aware that it was baby harp seals that were hunted in the past (the "whitecoats") -- and that this has been outlawed for over 20 years? The current hunt has precisely zip to do with "baby" anythings.

From the article linked above:

Watt-Cloutier called McCartney "silly" for lying down on sea ice and playing with seal pups.

She says seals may look like cute pets, but should be viewed as wild animals that are hunted by humans.

Anybody who eats Atlantic fish will want to watch out for the shortages and price increases if the seal population is not controlled. Or maybe just have a heart for the baby fish and stop eating the stuff.

> Anybody who eats Atlantic fish will want to watch out for the shortages
> and price increases if the seal population is not controlled.

That is absolutely fucking hysterical! :rofl:

Anyone who thinks that an "uncontrolled" seal population has more effect
on Atlantic fish depletion than the (definitely uncontrolled) human
fishing fleets is so far off this planet as to be laughable.

Oops. That appears to include you. Never mind.

FWIW, the ban will still offer some exemptions to Inuit communities so
they can continue their "traditional" hunts (i.e., for their own use)
but prohibits "large-scale trading of pelts, oils or meats" in
the EU.

This means that it stops the "killing for greed" industry (the majority)
without impacting the "killing for survival" side of things (i.e., the
smoke-screen that seal killers and their fans like to deploy).

:woohoo:

Anyone who thinks that an "uncontrolled" seal population has more effect
on Atlantic fish depletion than the (definitely uncontrolled) human
fishing fleets is so far off this planet as to be laughable.

Oops. That appears to include you. Never mind.

You appear to need new glasses. Or an ethics transplant.

I find attempting to converse with people whose main weapon is misrepresentation and character assassination to be rather pointless.

> I find attempting to converse with people whose main weapon is
> misrepresentation and character assassination to be rather pointless.

Quite amusing coming from the person who posted the following
misrepresentation:
>> Anybody who eats Atlantic fish will want to watch out for the
>> shortages and price increases if the seal population is not controlled.

I called you on your bullshit.

Maybe I wasn't as polite as I could have been but neither was I as
cutting (certainly not to the "character assassination" level) as
your hyperbole deserved.

It was unsurprising that you changed the tack of your argument
away from your factual errors towards your imaginary diagnostic
powers w.r.t. my vision and perceived ethical perspective.

...if the human population is not controlled. Human beings have already eaten 90% of the big fish in the oceans, and are digging our forks into that last 10%. A few seals more or less won't make any detectable difference the that rate of decline.

I'm happy to see us not killing seals, but mostly because my inner Deep Ecologist says we shouldn't kill creatures we don't need to kill.