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STRASBOURG (ANP) – The European ban on the trade of seal fur can be lifted, animal protectors warn. The European Commission wants to evaluate the measure, which is meant to prevent animal suffering.
Seal products such as fur and leather have been banned throughout the European Union since 2009, after countries like the Netherlands had already outlawed them earlier. But the commission is wondering if there are not too many seals. Seal hunters and fishermen from countries like Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have been pushing for years to relax or abolish the ban. The animals would eat all the fish.
That the EU is “seriously considering throwing the ban overboard is a great scandal,” says Dutch Member of the European Parliament Anja Hazekamp from the Party for the Animals. She points out that an evaluation is often the prelude to tampering with an animal protection measure. For instance, the commission also wants to scale back the protection of the wolf after consulting stakeholders.
Animal lovers can prevent this by filling out the commission’s questionnaire, hopes Hazekamp. “The more people voice that killing seals for their skin is unacceptable, the greater the chance that the EU ban will stand.”
In the words that the commission chooses, animal activists see the hand of lobbyists for seal hunting. The daily board of the EU wants to check “whether the rules still serve their purpose, focusing on their socio-economic impact and their impact on the seal population”. Precisely the arguments that hunters put forward, say seal protectors: there are enough seals, and even too many to also sustain the fishery. Hazekamp and her supporters point out that the ban was intended to end the cruel clubbing and to harmonize the rules in the various EU member states.
(July 15, 2024)