Euro-MPs take action to ban seal products from EU
September 12, 2006 3:44 PM
Lib Dem MEP Liz Lynne is celebrating the adoption of a written declaration by the European Parliament on the banning of seal products in the EU.
County Euro-MP Liz, who signed the declaration, said: "I am so pleased that this declaration has gone through and I now hope we will see legislation quickly put in place.
"A great many of my constituents have written to me supporting this declaration so it is great that I can now report back to them and tell them that things are really moving now.
"It is high time we saw an end to the barbaric practices that are involved in seal hunting and this is the first big step to ensuring they become a thing of the past."
Editor's Notes
78 constituents wrote to Liz asking her to sign the written declaration.
The European Parliament has adopted a written declaration on banning seal products in the European Union. The House has requested the European Commission to immediately draft a regulation to ban the import, export and sale of all harp and hooded seal products.
MEPs consider that this regulation should not have an impact on traditional Inuit seal hunting which only accounts for 3% of the current hunt.
The written declaration achieved more than half the signatures of all MEPs with some 373 signing so far.
MEPs say that more than one and a half million harp seal pups have been slaughtered in the North West Atlantic over the last four years and the vast majority of these animals were less than three months old. When hunting levels reached similar heights in the 1950s and 1960s, the seal population was reduced by two thirds,
A team of international veterinarians concluded that 42% of the slaughtered seals they examined may have been skinned whilst still conscious.
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