Brigitte Bardot at the beginning of her long campaign. Source:http://www.gala.fr
Europe bans seal-hunt products
The European Parliament adopted today a compromise proposed by the European Commission and Council, banning the "products derived from seals from the market."
All the same, products arising from 'traditional hunting by Inuits and other indigenous communities and which contribute to their subsistence' escape this ban. Another exception is selling, on a non-commercial basis, 'sub products of hunting which have been conducted with the sole objective of sustainable management of marine resources' - « sous-produits de la chasse conduite dans le seul objectif d’une gestion durable des ressources marines ». [Ed and translator: I have no idea what these sub products might refer to.]
Close to victory on behalf of seals. Source: Brigitte Bardot Foundation site
For Christophe Marie, Director of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation's Office of Animal protection, "This is a victory over barbarity, an historic decision going much further than the European banning of 1983 which only targeted import of furs from two species of seal, aged less than two weeks old. The European Community decision is legitimate because it responds, on the one hand, to the expectations of european citizens and, on the other hand, to the objectives of an action plan for the well-being of animals which institutes new European policy in the area.'
(The address for the English language version of the site is http://www.fondationbrigittebardot.fr/site/fbb_a.php?Id=74 At time of report the European ban on seal-products news had not been translated into English.)
Call to Canadians
The European decision could relaunch the national debate about allowing the biggest massacre of marine mammels in the world to continue. The Brigitte Bardot Foundation supports Ontario Senator, Mac Harb, who submitted, last March, a legal project aiming to 'ban commercial fishing of seals in Canadian fishing waters and cease granting licences to commercially fish seals. To support his legal project, the senator points out that 'the costs, economic and other, of this activity exceed the slim gains from this moribund industry' which costs Canadian taxpayers dearly.
At the news of the vote, Brigitte Bardot said she was very moved by the European decision. "It is the outcome of an exhausting battle, relentlessly fought for more than 30 years. This vote clearly means that we can no longer accept the unacceptable, whether it concern seal massacres on iceflows or Eared Seals in Namibia. It is urgent to put down our weapons, and to learn to protect and not to destroy the different species which people this planet."
Report translated by Sheila Newman from La Fondation Brigitte Bardot
Call to Australians (from Candobetter editor)
It is humbling to contemplate the work of this woman and others like her, who are able to see and fight against injustices and cruelties which most of us have entirely closed our minds and eyes to. It is inspiring to realise that, in Europe, the wildlife warriors seem to be winning. In Australia, to the contrary, the portrayal and the treatment of indigenous animals seems alarmingly to be getting worse. As candobetter's pages attest, however, wildlife warriors have not given up. Australia's kangaroo-meat industry is the biggest massacre of an animal on land, just as the harp-seal massacres, conducted on ice-flows, are the biggest kills of a marine animal.
Bardot's Foundation also carries news of Australian, Jenny Bryant, who saves koalas down on the Mornington Peninsula, almost unknown in Australia.
Add comment