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The Humane Society of the United States has rightfully been trumpeting its recent victory in which the European Union voted to ban the importation of Canadian harp seal products. But Barry Estabrook over at Gourmet magazine isn’t so impressed with the EU’s decision.
It’s easy to make an emotional case against Canada’s annual East Coast seal hunt. But it’s hard to make ecological and economic arguments against it: None of the seal species targeted are in any way endangered, and the hunt provides income to a desperately poor region at a time of year when it’s most needed.
Last week, the European Parliament opted for the easy course when it voted overwhelmingly to ban imports of many Canadian seal products.
If only the European Union displayed such integrity and backbone and applied such lofty principles to its own constituents, whose greed threatens to wreak devastation on cod, tuna, and other fish populations. But I guess it’s hard to get emotionally worked up about cod, even when the species is ecologically on the brink.