14 DAY TRIAL // In a decisive move, the European Union has banned imports of seal products coming from animals that are slain in the most brutal ways. Adopted yesterday, with 550 votes for and 49 against, the new legislation is aimed squarely at Canada, one of the main suppliers for the European market, which has come under increased criticism over the past few years, on account of the fact that it still employs barbaric and inhumane methods of killing the animals it then sells. Despite trips that Canadian officials took in Europe, in a bid to persuade members of the European Parliament to cancel the proposal, the bill has passed and will soon come into effect.
At the moment, there are only two options that Canadian hunters have. They can either change their hunting practices, and kill seals in a humane manner, or remain savages and find other markets as “hungry” as Europe, and with the ability to process the large amounts of seal products that Europe now does.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) praised the EU for its decision, and expressed its satisfaction with the fact that the Union listened to the overwhelming majority of Europeans, who opposed the cruel practices of the Canadian hunters. Concerned citizens around the world sent thousands of letters to officials in Union countries, demanding that the imports be banned.
The recent move has deprived Canada of the ability to sell its products on seven of its top-ten markets, and in an additional 40 other nations. The American nation has already announced that it will attack the decision in the World Trade Organization forums, but there is little chance anything will change. The IFAW said that Canada's reaction would only result in losing millions of dollars of taxpayers' money, and further described it as “an emotional, knee-jerk reaction, not one that is socially or economically responsible.”
The Director of IFAW Europe, Lesley O’Donnell, added that the European “Parliament has hammered the final nail in the coffin of the sealing industry’s market in the EU.” He also emphasized the fact that Canadian Senator Mac Harb introduced a bill that would eventually result in the complete shutdown of the country's seal-hunting industry, and that the initiative had already received more than 500,000 letters of support from around the world.
Canada is becoming increasingly isolated in this industry, as even other major players, including the Russian Federation, announced that they banned the hunt of seals under the age of one year starting this March. As long as the country remains stubborn in its decision to cruelly slaughter young seals and old ones alike, it will continue to have no markets where to unload its products. And, environmentalists point out, it brought it upon itself, by not heeding international pressure on the matter.