Science News
EU considers action on 'inhumane' Canadian seal killings
By DPA
Mar 26, 2008, 16:24 GMT

Brussels - The European Union's environment commissioner is considering taking action against Canada over the expected cull of young seals, a spokeswoman in Brussels confirmed Wednesday.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas 'is looking into the matter of the inhumane killing of seals and we are preparing a text to be presented in the next few months,' Dimas' spokeswoman said.

Canada's annual culling of tens of thousands of young seals regularly provokes outrage from environmental campaigners, who say that one of the hunters' killing methods - clubbing the animals to death - is simply inhumane.

Canadian officials say that the hunt is carried out humanely and is necessary both to control seal population numbers and to support small coastal fishing communities.

Dimas' spokeswoman would not be drawn on what measures the EU might take. However, in 2006 the European Parliament called for an EU-wide ban on seal-skin imports.

Belgium and the Netherlands have already brought in such bans, but Canada is challenging the move in the World Trade Organization.