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“SENATE RESOLUTION 84--URGING THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO END THE COMMERCIAL SEAL HUNT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S3691-S3692 on March 24, 2009.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SENATE RESOLUTION 84--URGING THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO END THE
COMMERCIAL SEAL HUNT
Mr. LEVIN (for himself and Ms. Collins) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 84
Whereas the Government of Canada permits an annual commercial hunt for seals in the waters off the east coast of Canada;
Whereas an international outcry regarding the plight of the seals hunted in Canada resulted in the 1983 ban by the European Union of whitecoat and blueback seal skins and the subsequent collapse of the commercial seal hunt in Canada;
Whereas the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) bars the import into the United States of any seal products;
Whereas, in recent years, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada has authorized historically high quotas for harp seals;
Whereas more than 1,000,000 seals have been killed during the past 4 years;
Whereas harp seal pups can legally be hunted in Canada as soon as they have begun to molt their white coats, at approximately 12 days of age;
Whereas 97 percent of the seals killed are pups between just 12 days and 12 weeks of age;
Whereas, in 2007, an international panel of experts in veterinary medicine and zoology was invited by the Humane Society of the United States to observe the commercial seal slaughter in Canada;
Whereas the report by the panel noted that sealers failed to comply with sealing regulations in Canada and that officials of the Government of Canada failed to enforce such regulations;
Whereas the report also concluded that the killing methods permitted during the commercial seal hunt in Canada are inherently inhumane and should be prohibited;
Whereas many seals are shot in the course of the hunt and escape beneath the ice where they die slowly and are never recovered;
Whereas such seals are not properly counted in official kill statistics, increasing the likelihood that the actual kill level is far higher than the level that is reported;
Whereas the few thousand fishermen who participate in the commercial seal hunt in Canada earn, on average, only a tiny fraction of their annual income from killing seals;
Whereas members of the fishing and sealing industries in Canada continue to justify the seal hunt on the grounds that the seals in the Northwest Atlantic are preventing the recovery of cod stocks, despite the lack of any credible scientific evidence to support this claim;
Whereas the consensus in the international scientific community is that culling seals will not assist in the recovery of fish stocks and that seals are a vital part of the fragile marine ecosystem of the Northwest Atlantic;
Whereas polling consistently shows that the overwhelming majority of people in Canada oppose the commercial seal hunt;
Whereas the vast majority of seal products are exported from Canada, and the sealing industry relies on international markets for its products;
Whereas 10 countries have prohibited trade in seal products in recent years, and the European Union is now considering a prohibition on trade in seal products; and
Whereas the persistence of this cruel and needless commercial hunt is inconsistent with the well-earned international reputation of Canada: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) urges the Government of Canada to prohibit the commercial hunting of seals; and
(2) strongly supports an unconditional prohibition by the European Union on trade in seal products.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on March 18th, 2009, just weeks before its hunting season was scheduled to begin, Russia announced that it would ban the hunting and killing of baby seals. Youri Trutnev, Russia's Minister of Natural Resources, who was quoted in the New York Times last week, graphically depicted the shameful practice, saying: ``The bloody sight of the hunting of seals, the slaughter of these defenseless animals, which you cannot even call a real hunt, is banned in our country, just as well as in most developed countries.''
In addition, the Internal Markets and Consumer Protection Committee
(IMCO) of the European Parliament approved a prohibition on trade in seal products in the European Union. This measure may now be considered by the full European Parliament in the coming months.
Yet, in Canada, the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals in the world continues. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), over one million seals have been killed over the past four years. In Canada, seal pups as young as 12 days old can legally be killed. The vast majority of seals killed in these hunts are between 12 days and 12 weeks of age.
Canada has officially opened another seal hunting season, paving the way for hundreds of thousands of baby seals to be killed for their fur in the coming weeks, when the harp seal hunt begins in earnest. So today I am pleased to be joined by Senator Collins in submitting a resolution that urges the Government of Canada to end this senseless and inhumane slaughter.
The U.S. Government has opposed this senseless slaughter, as noted in the January 19, 2005, letter from the U.S. Department of State, in response to a letter Senator Collins and I wrote to President Bush, urging him to raise this issue during his November 30, 2004, visit with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that support material be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Department of State,
Washington, DC, January 19, 2005.
Dear Senator Levin: This is in response to your letter to the President of November 24, 2004, regarding Canadian commercial seal hunting. The White House has requested that the Department of State respond. We regret the delay in responding. Unfortunately, this letter was not received in the Department of State until mid-December, well after the referenced meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada.
We are aware of Canada's seal hunting activities and of the opposition to it expressed by many Americans. Furthermore, we can assure you that the United States has a long-standing policy opposing the hunting of seals and other marine mammals absent sufficient safeguards and information to ensure that the hunting will not adversely impact the affected marine mammal population or the ecosystem of which it is a part. The United States policy is reflected in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA) which generally prohibits, with narrow and specific exceptions, the taking of marine mammals in waters or lands subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and the importation of marine mammals and marine mammal products into the United States.
The United States has made known to the Government of Canada its objections and the objections of concerned American legislators and citizens to the Canadian commercial seal hunt on numerous occasions over recent years. The United States has also opposed Canada's efforts within the Arctic Council to promote trade in sealskins and other marine mammal products.
We hope this information is helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance in this or any other matter.
Sincerely,Nancy Powell,
(For Paul V. Kelly, Asst. Secretary, Legislative Affairs).
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Russia to Ban Hunting of Baby Seals
(By A.G. Sulzberger)
Russia announced on Wednesday that it would ban the hunting of baby seals, effectively shutting one of the world's largest hunting grounds in the controversial trade in seal fur.
The decision is yet another blow to an age-old industry that has been losing a public relations battle in recent years to animal-rights groups, who have gained public support by using stark photographs of harp seal pups less than a month old being clubbed to death on blood-stained ice flows.
In addition, the European Union is considering a ban of all seal products--similar to one that the United States adopted decades ago--which would eliminate a key trade route and end market for the furs. And even in Canada, where the world's largest seal hunt is scheduled to begin later this month and top leaders vigorously defend the industry, a legislator for the first time introduced a proposal to curtail sealing.
``It's highly significant,'' Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International in Canada, said of the political developments. ``It shows that world opinion is moving away from commercial seal hunting. There's hope on the horizon that this may be the last year that we ever have to witness this cruelty.''
In Russia, where the number of new pups has dropped sharply in recent years because of the hunts as well as shrinking ice in the White Sea, the government initially announced a ban on the killing of the very youngest and most highly prized seals, known as ``whitecoats.'' The seals shed the white fur in about two weeks, with the resulting silver coat also coveted.
But the government announced in unsparing language that it intended to extend the ban to include all seals less than a year old. (While adult seals are also hunted in smaller quantities, their coarse, scarred fur is generally not used in clothing.) The move, publicly backed by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and coming just weeks before the hunting season was to begin, could save as many as 35,000 seals, according to a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
The Associated Press quoted the natural resources minister, Yuri Trutnev, as saying in a statement: ``The bloody sight of the hunting of seals, the slaughter of these defenseless animals, which you cannot even call a real hunt, is banned in our country, just as well as in most developed countries, and this is a serious step to protect the biodiversity of the Russian Federation.''
Masha Vorontsova, the head of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Russia and a biologist who has been pushing for a ban since the fall of the Soviet Union, credited an outpouring of public support for ending the hunt. ``It's a fantastic achievement,'' she said.
In contrast, Gail Shea, Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, did little to disguise her frustration at moves taking aim at the industry both abroad and at home, which she attributed to ``mistruths and propaganda'' spread by special interest groups.
``For some reason the European Union will not recognize what the actual facts are because it's an emotional issue and a political issue,'' she said in an interview.
Ms. Shea, who earlier flew to Europe to lobby against a European Union ban, warned that such a move could violate international trade law. An industry spokesman said that nearly all Canadian seal products passed through Europe on their way to major consumers like Norway, Russia and China. It is unclear whether Russia will also ban the import and sale of seal products.
Commercial sealing also takes place in a handful of other counties, including Norway, Greenland and Namibia.
In Canada, last year's catch of 207,000 seals--or roughly one in every five pups born that year--earned the roughly 6,000 licensed sealers a total of $7 million, down from $33 million in 2006, according to Phil Jenkins, a spokesman for the Canadian fisheries department. The hunting decreased, he said, largely because of a sharp drop in prices for the pelts, from $97 to $33, for a perfect specimen. Seals are killed by rifle or by club.
The harp seal population level has held steady at about 5.6 million for the last decade, he said, but anti-sealing groups contest that figure.
However, the Canadian industry came under rare official scrutiny last week, when Mac Harb, a senator from Ontario, introduced the legislation to cancel the coming hunt. He argued that the industry was dying, propped up by public tax dollars and costing Canada international good will. But his proposal died when Mr. Harb could not get another member to second his motion.
``There was silence. Total silence!'' he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. ``I was amazed that not one of my colleagues, from any one of the political parties, would even want to debate the issue.''
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