Austrian Parliament votes for Ban on Seal Products – UK Urged to Follow Suit
25 April 2007
(Vienna, Austria) Yesterday the Austrian Parliament voted unanimously for a motion to introduce a national ban on all seal products. IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare) has been campaigning tirelessly to achieve national bans in different countries and is also working towards an EU-wide ban.
Worldwide protests over decades have not prevented the Canadian Government from allowing the slaughter of more than 300,000 seal pups annually in recent years. Many countries are now reacting with the introduction of national bans on seal products in order to close the markets and send a clear message to Canada.
“Stopping the trade in seal products is the strongest means European governments have to end the cruel and unnecessary hunt” says Dr. Ralf Sonntag, Director of IFAW-Germany. “Our recent achievements cause a lot of nervousness within the Canadian authorities. Canada has to realise that a mass slaughter like this has no justification in our modern world.” All veterinary investigations have shown that a large number of seals are killed inhumanely and that the seal hunt is unacceptably cruel.
Robbie Marsland, UK Director of IFAW, said: “Austria is the latest country to recognise that the best way to stop the seal hunt is by introducing national bans on seal products. We believe the UK government is lagging behind in terms of action to stop this cruel hunt by not pursuing a national ban.”
In February, the UK Minister for Trade, Ian McCartney MP, called upon the European Commission to propose an EU-wide ban on the import of seal products. While IFAW welcomed this announcement, the EU Commissioner has since recommended that national bans would help achieve an EU-wide ban.
Mr Marsland continued: “The Government should heed the Commissioner’s advice and act without delay. Waiting for coordinated EU action might take years – in which time many hundreds of thousands of seal pups will have been needlessly killed.”
This year the government set a quota of 270 000 seals to be killed, despite evidence that the seals’ natural habitat is seriously threatened by the effects of global warming. Last week the hunt came to a halt after many of the sealers’ boats were trapped in the ice. It is very likely that the hunt will continue once the sealers are freed, in order to fulfill the quota. So far at least 195,693 harp seals have been killed.
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