European Seal Bill Passed

The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly today to ban seal product imports. Our long struggle to achieve this goal is over and it has ended in a great victory for civilized morality and ecological responsibility over barbaric greed, cruelty, and waste.

The Canadian government has already threatened to challenge the legislation, expected to take effect in the first half of 2010, at the World Trade Organization. They will fail, and if they have any sense of responsibility to the majority of Canadians who do not support sealing they will desist from trying to threaten a 25 billion dollar trade agreement with the European Union.

The results of the vote in Strasbourg were overwhelming: 550 votes for the ban and only a mere 49 against it. The European Bill to ban seal products passed with 92% support from the European parliamentarians.

"Hopefully this will give the government of Canada the message that they need to join the 21st Century," said Captain Paul Watson. "This kind of barbarity has absolutely no place in our world today."

This is the single greatest blow ever struck against the sealing industry and it will bring the industry to its knees...