Please Do Not Tap On the Glass

Finally! We’ve been waiting a year, at least, for this vote and it came today. Here’s part of the text from PR Newswire:

STRASBOURG, France, May 5 /PRNewswire/ — Humane Society International
congratulated the European Parliament for voting overwhelmingly in favour
of a strong ban on trade in seal products.

“Today’s vote in the European Parliament marks a historic victory in
the campaign to stop the commercial slaughter of seals around the world,”
said Mark Glover, director of Humane Society International/UK. “The
European Union has acted on behalf of its citizens, and its decision will
save millions of seals from a horrible fate.”

“The European Union has made history by ending its trade in seal
products,” said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society
International/Canada. “This ban spells the beginning of the end of Canada’s
globally condemned seal slaughter.”

The Parliament voted for a strong Regulation that will eliminate the
placing of seal products on the EU market, closing a primary market for
Canada’s commercial seal hunt. The Council and Commission have already
agreed to the text, making Tuesday’s plenary vote the final step in
achieving the regulation. In light of the overwhelming vote in favour of
the agreed upon regulation by the Parliament, the regulation will go into
effect in 2010.

Baby seal on bloody ice in Canada © The HSUS

The rest of that story is a timeline of events and countries that have banned seal products, limiting Canada’s ability to peddle their bloody wares around the globe. Is the end of the annual slaughter? Not yet. You can be sure the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans will stage another tax-subsidized slaughter next year in defiance of today’s decision by the EU Parliament. How long before Canadian citizens are tired of paying for this revolting, brutal slaughter of baby seals to appease a small segment of their population?

According to the Humane Society of the United States, whose HSI staff led by Rebecca Aldworth have witnessed the slaughter for years, baby seal skins aren’t fetching much on the market:

Prices for seal fur in Canada declined to just $15 CAD — a
drop of 86 percent from 2006 – largely due to the pending EU
prohibition. As a result, many sealers chose not to participate in the
slaughter. Out of a quota of 338,200 seals, less than 60,000 have been
killed to date — making it likely that a quarter of a million baby
seals will have been spared a cruel death this year.

End it, Canada. Now.

s.