By Loren Drummond
Danish Member of the European Parliament Gitte Seeberg traveled to Canada March 22 to observe the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals in the world. Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans is expected to announce the start of the hunt Thursday, and Seeberg plans to take her report back to the European Parliament, which is considering banning imports of seal fur and products.
Her presence on the ice floes before the hunt has even started indicates the mounting concern within the European Union about the cruel slaughter.
"Within the last year, there has been an enormous amount of activity on this issue within the European Union," Mark Glover, director of Humane Society International-U.K., said.
The European Parliament passed a written declaration calling for a ban on the import of seal products in September 2006. The declaration received a record number of signatures in support, but a ban will not be put in place until a study on the humane aspects of the hunt has been completed. A European ban would remove a key market for Canada's commercial hunt and help remove the financial incentive for Canadian fisherman to kill seals.
Individual European Union member states have already taken action to stop their trade in seal products. Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany have either implemented seal product trade bans, or are in the process of doing so. The United Kingdom is pressing the European Union for an EU-wide ban.
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"You just have to see the photos—nobody supports this kind of hunt. It is completely unnecessary." |
Seeberg flew over the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and observed the disastrous ice conditions, which have caused massive deaths of seal pups this spring. After observing stretches of water and broken ice without spotting surviving seal pups, Seeberg said, "I think, first of all, that the Canadian government should stop the hunt not only this year, but also in the future."
Glover thinks that reports and footage carried back to Europe by observers like Seeberg play a major role in the changes taking place there. Carl Schlyter, a Swedish member of the European Parliament observed the commercial seal hunt in 2006. Over the years, European Parliamentarians' accounts of cruelty during the hunt have helped to counter lobbying by representatives of the commercial sealing industry in Europe, Glover said.
Canada recently sent a pro-sealing delegation to lobby European governments considering banning seal products.
On March 27, the pro-sealing delegation met with some skepticism in its meeting with the U.K. Parliament, said Glover.
In lobby sessions, Canadian officials regularly claim that the hunt is both humanely conducted and sustainable, despite the overwhelming documentation to the contrary.
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| The HSUS |
Member of the European Parliament Gitte Seeberg sees water
where ice and seal pups should be in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. |
Seeberg hopes her first-hand account will help counter those claims. "People really don't understand how this can take place," Seeberg said. "Nobody—you just have to see the photos—nobody supports this kind of hunt. It is completely unnecessary."
Glover, in Canada to observe the hunt for a third year, added: "To see the sheer, callous brutality of the killing that's happening and the indifference to the suffering of the animals is something I will never forget. It was the most disgusting, horrible way of killing animals I've ever seen. And all for what? For fur products that no one needs."
A European Union ban on seal product trade, Glover said, would help put a final end to the Canadian seal hunt.
