For more than four decades, opposition to commercial seal hunting has gained momentum around the world, and governments are increasingly taking action to end the trade in seal products.

In 1972, the United States banned its trade in marine mammal products, including seal products. In 1983, the European Union passed a ban on the trade in products from newborn harp seals and hooded seal pups.

In the wake of the EU ban, the Canadian seal hunt—the largest slaughter of marine mammals on earth—came to a virtual standstill. However, in the mid-1990s, the Canadian government invested massive subsidies in the sealing industry, allowing the seal pups to be killed when they were a few days older. Today, products from the Canadian commercial seal hunt and smaller commercial seal hunts in other countries may legally be traded in Europe.

In response, several European nations have initiated national bans of seal products, regardless of the age of the seal when killed. In 2006, the Council of Europe—Europe's oldest political body—passed a recommendation urging its 47 member states to promote initiatives aimed at prohibiting the trade in seal products.

In September 2006, a record 425 members of the European Parliament—the directly elected parliamentary body of the EU—signed a historic declaration calling upon the European Commission to immediately introduce legislation to prohibit the trade in seal products. The EC then undertook a study of the humane aspects of seal hunting, the results of which could provide the foundation to ban all seal products within the EU.

Its study completed, the EC then held a public consultation to measure international opinion on an EU-wide ban on the trade in seal products. The response was overwhelmingly in favour of a ban. Based on the results of the study and the consultation, the Commission put forward a proposal to ban seal product trade in the European Union. The proposed prohibition is now before the European Parliament.

There is now a historic opportunity before the Parliament to save millions of seals from a horrible fate. Please help us to convince Members of the European Parliament to end the cruel seal product trade. Sign our petition to show your support for a total ban on seal product trade in the European Union. We all need to speak up for the seals. 

Get the facts before you sign our petition.

Current bans and other actions global governments are taking against the seal slaughter.

Resources and reports on seal killing.

Forty years of seal protection legislation.

Why the commercial seal slaughter must end.

Heartbreaking fate of defenceless pups.

Exploding the myths about the proposal to ban trade in seal products.

You could buy—and consume—seal products without knowing it.

Subsistence hunting in Greenland.

They call this humane?

Public opinion from around the world.

Retail investigation.

WTO compatibility.

Empty threats from Canada: Futile efforts to stop the inevitable