News from 2008
Various items of interest from 2008 regarding seal hunt
ALERT: Please write to the EU Environment Commissioner Dimas!
Send an e-alert to your list to send him a very polite e-mail urging him to please to consider the adoption of the wide EU ban of all Canadian Seal Products to stop this atrocity hapening year after year in Canada.
Marianne White, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Canada Sends Delegation To Europe
QUEBEC -- As the annual seal hunt gets underway Friday, a delegation of Canadian officials and hunters will be heading to Europe to make a plea for the industry, which has been criticized as cruel and could soon face sanctions from the 27-nation bloc.
The European Union is weighing a ban on the import of all seal products from Canada to protest against the annual harvest.
A spokeswoman for EU environment chief Stavros Dimas told reporters in Brussels Wednesday Mr. Dimas is "looking into the nature of the inhumane killing of seals," and is drafting a text to be presented before June.
Mr. Dimas could then recommend that the EU follow the lead of Belgium and the Netherlands, who have already banned the import of seal products.
The Canadian government is waging an aggressive diplomatic battle against the possible ban and wants to make sure EU decision-makers get fully briefed on the seal hunt before they are asked to vote.
Canada's ambassador for fisheries conservation Loyola Sullivan -- who heads the delegation -- acknowledged that it won't be an easy task to overcome the anti-sealing movement that has taken hold in Europe.
"When you put propaganda out in the public for years and years, spending millions of dollars earned on false advertising by using images that no longer exist in over 20 years, it's difficult to change people's minds when they have formulated an opinion," Mr. Sullivan said in an interview.
"But we are not going to be bullied by a bunch of people spreading misinformation about Canadians honestly earning a livelihood. We have to stand on the principle," he added.
A Europe-wide ban could be catastrophic for the $33-million industry that is a mainstay of East Coast communities.
It would also mean Canada could no longer ship seal pelts through European ports to major markets in China and Russia.
Mr. Sullivan's delegation -- which is going to Europe for the second year in a row -- kicks off a 10-day visit to London, Brussels, Paris, Berlin and Vienna on Saturday.
He is taking along a number of Canadian officials including the premier of Nunavut, Newfoundland's natural resources minister, as well as seal hunters from Quebec's Magdalen Islands and Newfoundland.
Mr. Sullivan lamented the fact that animal rights groups often try to sway opinion by showing images of cute and cuddly seal pups, and of dead and bloodied seals on ice flows. Since 1987, it is illegal to hunt whitecoat pups and hooded seal pups, who are newborn seals.
"We have to put our side of the issue on the table to make sure people don't legislate based on emotion," he stressed.
The Humane Society of the United States, a leading opponent of the seal hunt, dismissed the delegation as nothing more than a "SWAT team of lobbyists" and reiterated its intention to oppose the annual hunt that will start Friday in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, weather permitting.
"The seal hunt is the largest slaughter of mammals on earth and it's happening in Canada. Moreover, the government is actively promoting it and defending," said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the organization.
For this year's culling, the government set a quota of 275,000 seal harps out of a population of nearly six million.
Canadian officials have long maintained the hunt is well-monitored and sustainable and Ottawa announced earlier this year that hunters will now have to take extra steps to ensure the seals die humanely.
(http://www.nationalpost.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=401628)
NEWS from the ice (March-April 2008)
3 sealers dead, 1 missing
7 sealers rescued after ships
sinks
Seal hunters head out to Gulf of St.
Lawrence
Ramming of the Farley Mowat?
You can help to keep us doing this high level personal and active lobbying!
Help Yupi
WAD
Ericka Ceballos is the proud Canadian Ambassador of World Animal Day. Click on the WAD logo above to check for the events that we will hold to celebrate the animals in Canada.
AD-AV Award!
Click to view larger
Campaigns Against the Cruelty to Animals
Follow us on Twitter!
Click on the button link above for important animal news, events and alerts.
Contact Info
Ericka
PO Box 16021
617 Belmont Street
New Westminster
British Columbia
V3M 6W6
Canada
Email Us!