EU bans seal products imports!
The EU has voted to ban the import of seal products.
The European Union bans the import of seal products! Strasbourg, France May 5th
The ban on trade in seal products has been adopted today at the European Parliament by 550 votes in favor, 49 against and 41 abstentions. The alternative proposals by the UEN on "wild animals" and on the authorization to kill seals without "useless pain or suffering" has been rejected by 435 votes (174 in favor).
THANK YOU!
Best regards,
Ericka Ceballos
CATCA, CMEPS, WCASC
News about this:
Canada's Seal Hunt Suffers A
Blow
Check this interview with Diana Wallis and Carl Schlyter here.
News about the seals for Canadian Olympians here.
These are the final version of documents adopted on May 5th in Strasbourg, France: Document 1 Document 2
Senator Mac Harb in Vancouver (May 3rd)
Check these links (still not available), to watch the speech of the Senator, Sheryl Fink (IFAW), speaking about the seal hunt she witnessed as an observer this year and Ericka (CATCA), about the European Union ban on the seals products vote during the event.
Namibia to Continue Culling Seals, Says EU Decision 'Emotional' By Chamwe Kaira
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Namibia, which accounts for most of the world's seal-fur harvest with Canada and Greenland, said it won't be affected by European Union plans to ban seal-product imports and will cull the animals.
The southern African country will proceed with its yearly seal kill of about 80,000 Cape fur seals, Abraham Iyambo, Namibia's minister of fisheries and marine resources, said today in an interview. The 27-nation EU imposed the import ban May 5.
"The EU is not a market of note for us," Iyambo said in Windhoek, the country's capital. "It was just an emotional decision. This will have serious repercussions on world trade."
The EU banned the trade because it says clubbing and skinning seals causes unnecessary suffering to the animals. Canada and Norway may be prompted to follow through on threats to challenge the decision at the World Trade Organization.
Animal welfare organizations that have opposed the cull in Namibia have failed to advise the government on more humane ways to kill the seals other than clubbing them, the minister said.
"We've asked them to tell us better ways of killing seals but they all have miserably failed to do so," Iyambo said. "We are mandated by our constitution to sustainably manage our natural resources so we will continue harvesting seals."
In Namibia the pups are clubbed to death while adults are shot, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Independent newspaper reported in 2006. The genitalia of adult bulls are exported to east Asia where they are sold as an aphrodisiac while the rest of the seals are used to make fur coats, gloves, handbags, seal oil and carcass meal.
Seal-Skin Hats, Boots
At Cape Cross, the country's biggest seal colony, a shop sells seal products ranging from seal-skin boots to hats.
Namibia had 855,500 seals in 2005, according to a census conducted then. The government culls the seals because they consume fish that could otherwise be harvested and exported by the country.
In 2006 the seals ate 900,000 tons of fish, exceeding the 500,000 to 600,000 tons caught by the country's fishing fleet, according to Namibia's information ministry. Namibia is the biggest exporter of hake to the European Union.
Canada's 2008 catch quota was 275,000 harp seals and 8,200 hooded seals. More than 350,000 were killed in 2006 for a harvest worth about C$33 million ($28.3 million), according to the Canadian Fisheries Ministry's Web site.
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