EU vote could lead to tight ban on Canadian seal products
Whether or not this is the final nail in Canada's commercial seal hunt coffin may depend on our government's success marketing dead seal products to Asia. Bewilderingly, the will to do so appears to remain strong. I'm inclined to think our tax dollars would be better spent promoting the creation of sustainable, ethical jobs for our country's few remaining commercial sealers.
Even if this does mark the end, whether or not this should be constituted a "victory" depends on how it's interpreted in the fashion world. Is it likely to raise awareness of the inherent cruelty of fur generally? Or will Europe's cold simply replace their seal with more mink and chinchilla? If a drop in seal "production" is just replaced by a spike in the sale of skins of other dead animals, that's not a victory.
Thoughts?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
It's doubtful that Europeans will drop their taste for fur products; they're too deeply imbedded as high end fashion in certain countries (i.e. France). I question whether seal fur makes up more than a fraction of the market - it seems to me like other mammals are going to continue getting slaughtered because their conditions simply haven't been addressed by campaigners. This campaign seems based on PR. Wild seals, baby ones in particular, make better headlines than 'vicious' minks, otters or foxes, or rodents like chinchillas. I am sure that DFO will simply work with EDC to make sure that we develop new markets for seal pelts rather than breaking this cycle of violence.
ReplyDelete"This campaign seems based on PR. Wild seals, baby ones in particular, make better headlines than 'vicious' minks, otters or foxes, or rodents like chinchillas."
ReplyDeleteYep. One of the main reasons the anti-sealing campaign has been so successful is that seal hunts don't take place on private property. Once the seal hunt ends (and I do think it will end in, well, not too many years) I don't see a whole lot of people from that movement tackling, say, Nova Scotia's mink farms.
As an aside, Nova Scotia is the largest mink "producer" in Canada.
I don't know where I read it, but found it again at the end of this .pdf file, that no pelts sold at the auction in North Bay this past January.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ifaw.org/Publications/Program_Publications/Seals/asset_upload_file586_53311.pdf
So I'm hoping you're right.