Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-15-Speech-4-191"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070315.21.4-191"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, last year I went and saw the seal hunting in Canada on behalf of the Animal Welfare Intergroup. The seal hunters used violence to try to prevent me from seeing what was going on. They forced our car off the road, they climbed onto our helicopters so that we could not fly in them and they threatened to kill us if we left our hotel in order to try to document the seal hunting. In spite of these methods, we succeeded in obtaining photographs and we saw how incredibly cruel seal hunting is. The hunters knew that they had something to hide. The seals are skinned alive, clubbed and left to choke on their own blood. They are wounded and either drown or have to suffer still more, as a second shot, designed mercifully to finish them off, would cause a two-dollar fall in the value of the skin.
It is not for conservation reasons that we should ban such hunting. It is for ethical reasons. I would nonetheless point out that the population declined the last time there was a huge hunt. We are now also faced with climate change, and the Greenland seal needs the ice sheet in order to be able to suckle her young. Many young seals are at present aborted in the water. Through being the world’s largest market, the EU supports such hunting, and Parliament has clearly said that we do not want our market to be a party to it. As Mr Bowis said, many countries have introduced national bans. When it was cat and dog fur that was at issue, the Commission said that the internal market was not working and that it would introduce an EU ban. The same logic applies in this case.
Does the Commission want studies to be carried out? There are many studies indicating the problems mentioned here in this House, especially the
but these should not mean a delay in taking necessary measures. If you want more time, we can give you that time, but in that case we want a temporary ban in place until you are ready, and you must determine the legal basis for such a ban. Thank you for choosing the European Food Safety Authority’s animal protection committee to carry out the study. That decision has led to it being accepted and to it being independent and representative of the will of the countries concerned.
I want to point out that seal hunting is not of vital interest to the economies of any of the countries that hunt seals – Canada, Norway, Russia and Namibia. We see in the case of whale hunting that when this was abolished and replaced by whale watching, the latter was more profitable, so we can also help the seal hunters themselves improve their financial position if they manage to give up their cruel practice."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"Bird and Veterinary Report"1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples