23 April 2008 - A Green MEP has joined forces with other European parliamentarians and animal welfare organisations from all over Europe to press the European Commission for an immediate ban on seal products, after fresh evidence emerged of the extent of cruel practices in the ongoing seal hunt in Canada.

Dr Caroline Lucas MEP, vice-president of the all-party Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, will hold a press conference in Brussels at 10.30am at the Residence Palace on Friday to showcase pictures and footage shot earlier this month, which refute Canada’s claims that new rules have made the annual hunt more humane.

The graphic evidence shows hunters ignoring the guidelines, failing to kill seals immediately, and hooking and hoisting live seals into a boat. In addition many of the seals killed are lost to the waves as hunters are unable to reach them in time.

Dr Lucas commented: “Parliamentarians have time and again called for action on the largest ever killing of marine mammals in the world. We fully support a ban on seal products to show enough is enough, and to prove to the Canadian government that this barbaric annual display of animal cruelty will no longer be tolerated.”

Sheryl Fink, senior researcher at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), visited the East Coast of Canada earlier this month to witness first hand how hunters clubbed seals to death. She said: “No-one who witnesses these seals being put to death and dragged across the ice could maintain the hunt has become more humane. Our footage shows the hunt is as cruel as it has always been, and it has no place in a modern country such as Canada.”

Animal welfare organisations and MEPs are not calling for an end to traditional Inuit seal hunting (in accordance with humane animal welfare standards). Canadian Inuit hunting of harp seals in the Canadian Arctic accounts for about 1%.  The ban only addresses the large-scale commercial seal hunting, but includes the seal cull not only in Canada but also around the world in places such as Russia and Namibia.

Dr Lucas continued: “I hope that Friday’s press conference will succeed in raising awareness of the need for a complete EU ban, and I urge the EU’s environment commissioner Stavros Dimas to propose an unequivocal ban when he makes his recommendations this summer.”

ENDS

Pictures and footage can be found on www.thenewsmarket.com/ifaw/.

The press conference will take place at 10.30am on Friday 25 April at the Residence Palace in Brussels.

Notes to Editors

A ban on seal products is widely supported by European parliamentarians. In 2006 425 MEPs signed a resolution to urge the Commission to ban all seal products. To see the Written Declaration, click here.

The Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, the US and Mexico have already banned seal products, while Germany and Italy are planning one. This Canadian government has said 275,000 seals are allowed to be killed this year, which is 50,000 more than last year.

Eurogroup for Animals represents animal welfare organisations in nearly each of the European member states. Since it was launched in 1980, the organisation has succeeded in encouraging the European Union to adopt higher legal standards of animal protection. For more information about Eurogroup, click here.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is one of the world’s largest animal welfare and conservation charities, which is dedicated to improving the welfare of wild and domestical animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress. For more about IFAW, visit IFAW.