Canadian government denies journalists and animal welfare groups permits to document slaughter
Thursday 27 March 2008
Canada’s commercial seal slaughter will begin half an hour before dawn on Friday, 28 March. However, at this time, Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials have refused to confirm they will issue permits to observers to document the killing for the opening day of the hunt.
Observation of the seal hunt is a right guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The commercial seal hunt occurs in public space, and journalists and citizens have the right to bear witness to it and document what happens.
As officials deny journalists full access to the seal hunt, media accounts report a delegation of sealing industry lobbyists, funded by the Canadian government, is in Brussels to convince the EU not to ban the import of seal products.
In 2006, the European Parliament passed a historic resolution calling on the European Commission to immediately draft legislation banning the trade in seal products, regardless of the age of the seal.
The European Commission initiated a study on the animal welfare aspects of commercial seal hunting, the results of which should provide the foundation for a ban. That study found evidence that seals may be “skinned whilst conscious, resulting in avoidable pain, distress, fear and … suffering.”