European seal product ban can continue

This video says about itself:

2014 Canadian Seal Hunt Exposed

17 April 2014

Each spring, the Canadian government authorizes its commercial fishing industry to kill hundreds of thousands of baby seals. They are impaled on hooks, dragged across the ice and cut open—and their pelts are often stockpiled in a warehouse.

Our Protect Seals team works year-round to shut down the commercial sealing industry—our Canadian seafood boycott has grown worldwide, we are successfully helping to close global markets for seal pelts, and we are urging Prime Minister Harper to shut down the industry for good with a federal buyout.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

EU seal product ban upheld

Friday 23rd May 2014

THE World Trade Organisation (WTO) upheld a European Union ban on the import of seal pelts, oil and meat today.

Canada and Norway had challenged the ban after the EU banned seal products in 2010, saying that seal hunting, which can involve clubbing seals to death, caused unavoidable pain and distress.

Canada and Norway claimed that seal hunting was done in an ethical manner and argued the ruling set a dangerous precedent because trade decisions were being made on the basis of morality rather than science.

But the WTO said that concerns about animal welfare can override commercial interests.

The EU ban contains exceptions for indigenous Inuit and Inuvialuit peoples from the northern Canadian province of Nunavut.

“This is a wonderful day for seals,” said Canadian programmes director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare Sheryl Fink.

“Canada and Norway used every technical argument they could. But reason and compassion have triumphed.”

Related articles

• WTO Ruling Upholds EU Seal Products Ban
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• Canada loses WTO appeal: EU seal products ban upheld