Victory!
Today, after a long struggle, the European Union has finally voted to ban all seal products. This is a huge victory for the seals, and hopefully it will go a long way to ending the massacre of any more Canadian baby seals.
Even before it passed, it seems the threat of the ban already devastated the baby seal hunting industry. In 2006, seal pelts sold for $105, while this year they sold for $14 each.
The result being, Canada had a quota of 280,000 seals this year, but the sealers ultimately only bothered to slaughter 59,500. Longtime seal hunter and seal hunt advocate Jack Troake stated, “We just couldn’t seal for those prices. The prices were too low.”
Canada’s government tried many things, including sending Inuit seal hunters to the European Parliament to plead Canada’s case for them, before the EU finally voted in favor of the ban. Canada’s great effort against the ban and the dramatic drop in seal pelt prices both indicate that the seal hunt will no longer be worth it post EU ban. Hopefully the permanent end of the hunt is now imminent.
3 Comments
Nichole
on #Yay! That is wonderful news!
Joe
on #I hear that Canada is going to the WTO in hopes of striking down the ban. I guess we’ll see what happens.
alan
on #This is another example of government not doing its democratic duty.
They support the seal industry because it is in an economically depressed area.
The most its ever made is $13 million.
It is an embarrassment to 98% of Canadians.
It will end very soon.