we 20 jun 2007, 18:29
BAN ON SEAL PRODUCT TRADE AFTER THIS SUMMER
THE HAGUE
The trade in seal products will be banned in The Netherlands after this summer. This was announced by Minister ofAgriculture Gerda Verburg this Wednesday in the 2nd chamber of Parliament.
Verburg declares in a letter that the Raad van State has advised on the proposed ban on the the sale of harp seal, hooded seal and Cape fur seal products. After due procedures are passed, the new law can become effective after this summer.
Most time consuming is the total ban of Cape fur seal products. The international trade in these products is regulated very strictly and some additional steps have to be taken to reach a total ban. It is expected that this can be done before the end of this year.
An exception for this trade ban is made for the traditional seal hunt of the Inuit, the Greenland eskimo's, for live animals and products that have been regularly imported into The Netherlands.
In the last days of his function Verburgs predecessor Minister Veerman promised the 2nd chamber such a ban, meeting the wish of the 2nd chamber, expressing its abomination of the culling of seal because of their fur.
The Netherlands is not the first EU-country to ban this seal product trade. Belgium was first and Germany is taking steps towards the same ban. Greenland has complained to the European Commission against the Belgian ban that would violate free trade.
Dutch Newspaper TROUW
BAN ON SEAL PRODUCT TRADE
(Novum) -
The trade in seal products in The Netherlands will be banned not later than September. It concerns the products of harp seals, hooded seals and Cape fur seals. This was announced by Minister of Agriculture Gerda Verburg on Wednesday to the 2nd chamber of parliament. It was announced earlier that a ban by July was not feasible.
In other Eurpean countries like Belgium and Italy have a ban. In the whole EU there is a ban on import of furs and products of seals under the age of twelve days. Now this includes older seals as well.
Amongst others this ban concerns skins, furs and oil
21 May 2007
The Party for the Animals - Partij voor de Dieren Marianne Thieme -
and SP - Socialistische Partij Krista van Velzen -
are in the process of amending the draft legislation
towards a total ban on sea mammal products
De zeehondenwet - De wet op het verbod van import en handel in zeehondenproducten
From: SEAL ALERT-SA
Date: May 19, 2007
Dear All Cape Fur Seal Supporters,
If only Dutch
Parliamentarian's understood Newton's 3rd Law,
Cape Fur Seals would
live
in a safer World
Newton's
3rd Law states
"for every Action there is an equal and opposite
Reaction"
In the 16th century colonial
Dutch explorers to the tip of Africa, did not understand it then.
Invading a wildlife habitat or islands and clubbing to death seals
(action), would result in the extinction
of those
islands named by the Dutch, after the seals (an equal and opposite
reaction) - Newton's Law.
Now, in the 21st Century, not
only have they (the Dutch) not understood it in 1983, but again in
2007.
In 1983, the European Union (of
which the Dutch are a part of) introducing a Europe wide ban on
baby seal imports or so the world was lead to believe. In reality
it only involved less than 14-day old Harp and Hooded Seal Species,
from a total of 32 seal species worldwide. Soon thereafter in 1987,
the sealing countries of these two species of seal, (Harp and
Hooded) which involved Canada, Greenland, Russia and Norway, all
introduced into their regulations a complete ban on "nursing baby
seals".
South Africa and Namibia continued to club
to death its baby Cape fur seals.
Once again, Newton's 3rd Law came into
force, which resulted in Europe increasingly importing baby Cape
fur seal products from Africa (Namibia) into Europe instead.
Never thinking to ban ALL species of seal.
The Harp and Hooded Seal populations in
Canada number some 5 to 6 million seals, with over 1 million pups
being born annually. Sustainable Wildlife Use Movements believe 30%
(thirty percent) of any wild seal population's pups can be
harvested sustainably, ignoring the inhumanness of these so-called
hunts, or in fact whether its true.
The Dutch Parliament in it's infinite
wisdom, similar to their counter-parts in the 16th century,
ignoring Newton's 3rd Law, have recently decided to ban once again,
just Harp and Hooded Seal imports, this time not just baby seal
products, but all seal products from these two species.
And as it did in 1987, the demand for baby
Cape fur seal products increased in Europe. Causing the Namibian
Ministry of Fisheries to steadily increase the annual sealing quota
from less than 3000 in 1990, past 30% of the pups born, past even
60%, in fact the 2006 baby pup quota for Namibia (Cape fur seals),
exceeded the number of pups alive come start of sealing season on
July 1. With 2006 sealing quota being 85 000 baby Cape fur seals,
making it the second largest seal hunt in the world. The reason for
this was simple, Canada alone was killing 325 000 pups annually in
its commercial seal hunt. Cape fur seals in Africa (the only
species of seal breeding on the whole African continent) only
numbers less than a million, and at its highest peak, only produces
some 250 000 pups, at best.
In Newton's eyes it stands to reason that
Namibia, would need to increase its quota to meet the new European
demand for baby seal imports.
It therefore stands to reason, that like it did
in the 16th century, the Dutch exterminated seals on islands. The
Dutch will solely cause the complete extinction of the Cape fur
seals as an entire species, with its exclusion of Cape fur seal
imports from its Parliamentary Ban on Seal Products (Harp and
Hooded).
Already, the Namibia Cape Fur Seal Hunt is 90%
baby pup based, and even with Canada last year killing 325 000
seals - Namibian sealers struggled to find towards the end of their
5-month sealing season, any more seals to kill.
If only the Dutch Parliamentarians understood
Newton's 3rd Law - "For every Action there is an equal and opposite
Reaction".
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA