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Chinese interested in Canadian seal products
last update: Jan 24, 2011 11:41 AM
From a "Toronto Sun" article: Now that the European market is closed to seal products, Newfoundland has negotiated a deal whereby China has agreed to buy seal products such as fur, oil and meat.
Gail Shea, Fisheries and Oceans Minister, and reps from Newfoundland, Labrador and Nunavut have finalized a deal with China which means, potentially, there’s no limit to sales in China. Canada already sells seal meat to Korea.
This means that, from a Canadian standpoint, the European Parliament’s ban has been thwarted.
In September 2010, the EU endorsed a bill that said commercial seal hunting was “inherently inhumane.” A ban was imposed on all seal products, which means skins for coats and bags, meat, blubber, oil used in some omega-3 pills.
Canada, Greenland and Namibia account for something like 60% of seals killed and until the European Parliament ban, 66% of the trade involved Europe. Russia and Norway also hunt seals.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has called the Canadian seal hunt “unsustainable and cruel, inhumane and unnecessary.”
Read:
Toronto Sun, 24th January 2011
