http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jNi6EJF6WPOSqGpBc2pKmXbwzYtQ

OTTAWA (AFP) — Faced with the prospect of a European ban on the trade
of seal products, a Canadian senator on Tuesday hopelessly proposed an
end to this country's controversial commercial seal hunt.

Senator Mac Harb introduced a private members bill that would end the
commercial seal slaughter in Canada, but allow the traditional Inuit
hunt to continue.

"In the face of disappearing markets for seal products and
overwhelming international opposition, it is time for Canada to
recognize that we can't resuscitate this dying industry any longer,"
Harb said in a statement.

He was backed at a press conference by the International Fund for
Animal Welfare, which described this first time a Canadian politician
has introduced legislation to put an end to the largest marine mammal
slaughter in the world as "a truly historic moment."

It heralds "the beginning of the inevitable end to Canada's commercial
seal hunt," echoed activist lawyer Clayton Ruby.

The bill failed to gain any support from the start, however, even from
Harb's fellow Liberals, and was immediately dropped from the senate's
agenda.

"This bill was stillborn," a Liberal spokesman told AFP.

On Monday, the European Union's legislative branch voted to ban
products derived from seals from being imported into the EU, exported
from it, or even transported through EU territory.

The Canadian government responded with an ardent defense of the
"humaneness" of seal-hunting and rejected efforts to outlaw the
practice.

The full European Parliament is to vote on the ban at a April 1
plenary session in Brussels. The measure also has to be approved by EU
governments before it can be implemented.

The European Commission had already proposed a ban in July 2008 for
seals killed in ways deemed inhumane by critics of seal hunting, such
as the clubbing of young seal pups, but it failed to pass.

Seals are hunted mainly for their pelts, but also for meat and fat,
which is used in beauty products.

According to the European Commission, Canada, Greenland, and Namibia
account for about 60 percent of the 900,000 seals hunted each year,
with Canada being the biggest source.

Seals are also hunted in Iceland, Norway, Russia, and the United
States as well as in EU member states Britain, Finland and Sweden.

Each year, anti-sealing activists clash with sealers and Canadian
fisheries officials on Canada's Atlantic coast, denouncing the hunt as
cruel.

This year's hunt is set to start in one month.