http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1041438.html
Possibility of European ban looms over commercial seal hunt
By TARA BRAUTIGAM The Canadian Press
Mon. Mar 3 - 4:46 AM
[Belgium and Holland have approved legislation prohibiting the sale of seal products. Germany, Italy and Austria are drafting similar legislation, prompting pressure for the European Union to adopt a ban. (TOM HANSON / CP)
]ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — As fishermen in Atlantic Canada prepare for the commercial harp seal hunt later this month, the possibility of a European ban on seal products threatens to devastate the sealing industry.
The European Union’s decision on whether to prohibit seal products is expected after the conclusion of an external report, expected by the middle of this month, examining the socio-economic impacts of a possible ban.
"We’re always concerned because when you get others doing reports, of course you have no idea what’s going to be in it," said federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn.
"We’re trying to make sure as well as we can that the information that they use is right and proper and factual."
In December, the European Food Safety Authority released a report that found there is little peer-reviewed science on the hunting and skinning of seals.
From the evidence available, it concluded that many seals are killed without causing avoidable pain and suffering, but it also found that effective killing does not always occur.
Rob Cahill, executive director with the Fur Institute of Canada, said he believed it’s very likely that the EU would pass some sort of ban.
While Cahill applauds Europe’s effort to study the hunt, he fears a ban would be based, at least in part, on propaganda from animal rights groups who want the hunt to end.
"The most dangerous thing is that it sets a very bad precedent for setting international trade law based on very poor science and lobbying by the animal rights organizations," Cahill said.
"If (sealers) aren’t allowed to live off the resources they have, then yes, it’s going to cut into their income — some up to 30 per cent of their income — and for no good reason."