Commission Assessment of the animal welfare aspects of seal hunting

- Independent Scientific Opinion on animal welfare aspects of the killing and skinning of seals issued by the European Food Safety Authority

- Assessment of the potential impact of a ban of products derived from seal species

Public consultation: "Your attitude towards trade in seal products"

This web-based public consultation on your attitude towards trade in seal products is open from 20/12/2007 to 13/02/2008.

Introduction

Several EU Member States are considering, or have already introduced, national legislative measures to ban the import and use of seal skins and seal products. Furthermore, in autumn 2006, the European Parliament adopted a declaration requesting the European Commission to regulate the import, export and sale of all harp and hooded seal products, while ensuring that this regulation would not have an impact on traditional Inuit seal hunting. All the measures introduced and/or being considered are mainly based on concerns over the welfare of those seals belonging to hunted populations.

Existing Community legislation

Existing Community legislation already prohibits the importation into the EU Member States of skins of whitecoat pups of harp seals and of pups of hooded seals (see link: Seal Pups Directive ). Also to be noted is the fact that, in the EU, all seal species benefit from protection under European Community legislation, in particular the Habitats Directive. This directive allows – under strict conditions – the hunting of seals belonging to specific seal populations, provided that the conservation status of the seals is monitored to ensure that they are maintained at a favourable conservation status (see link: Habitats Directive ).

General Information on seal hunting

Seal hunting occurs in various parts of the world for different reasons (e.g. commercial, subsistence and cultural reasons, as well as to avoid conflicts with fisheries, which is mainly the case in the European Union).

Approximately 15 seal species are currently hunted; however, the majority of hunted animals belong to five species: harp seals, ringed seals, grey seals, hooded seals and Cape fur seals.

The seal populations throughout the world that are commercially hunted (estimated at approximately 15 million animals) are generally not endangered and have even recovered from previous decreasing numbers, following improved management methods. The commercial seal hunt in Canada and Namibia, as well as the hunt in West Greenland, account for approximately 57 per cent (450,000 seals) of the total number of seals killed (approximately 800,000 seals). Hunts for commercial purposes also take place in Russia and Norway.

Imports into the EU only concern a small fraction of the products deriving from seals that are hunted.

Animal welfare aspects

Animal welfare concerns, i.e. the possible pain, distress and suffering associated with the different methods of killing the individual seals, e.g. shooting, killing with striking weapons, netting or harpooning have motivated the European Commission to undertake a detailed assessment of the potential impact of regulating the import and trade of seal products.

There are different rules and requirements governing seal hunting in the different countries worldwide. In the EU, Member States are obliged to ensure the maintenance of a favourable conservation status as stated in the paragraph above relating to existing Community legislation. Furthermore, the Habitats Directive mentioned earlier prohibits certain methods and means of capture and killing and modes of transport. Some countries have comprehensive legislation aimed at excluding some seal hunting methods and practices which, for various reasons, are seen as unacceptable, while the seal hunt in other countries is regulated to a lesser degree.

The purpose of this consultation

There are a number of essential questions to be asked before considering any additional measures aiming to ensure high levels of animal welfare. The objective of this consultation is to get feedback from the general public on issues relating to the animal welfare aspects of the killing of seals. The results of the consultation will be taken into consideration by the Commission in formulating any appropriate policy response in reply to the concerns expressed. The consultation should, however, not be considered an opinion poll or a forum for voting about these issues. Our aim is to generate the widest possible range of views on these issues to inform the decision-making.

Privacy statement

This consultation is subject to a privacy statement. The Commission will not disclose the identity of a respondent in any manner.

How to introduce your replies?

This consultation is based on an online questionnaire. It should take you approximately 15 minutes to fill in all the questions.

The session time is limited to 1 hour and 30 minutes. This means that you should submit your reply within this allotted time. If you exceed this timeframe, your replies would unfortunately be lost!

After you have correctly entered your replies click on "submit". You should get a confirmation page stating that your reply has been recorded and an "IPM reference number" (Interactive Policy making reference number). You can then also print your entire entry. In case of errors in the replies the survey page is re-loaded instead. Please then check if you have filled in correctly all compulsory questions.

A synthesis of the outcome of the consultation will be published on this website in March 2008.

Tell us your views
Contact

European Commission

DG – Environment E.2

"Environmental Agreements & Trade"

B-1040 Brussels

E-mail address: ENV-TRADE-IN-SEAL-PRODUCTS@ec.europa.eu