EU Ban on Seal Products from Canada Works: So, What Does Canada Do? The Obvious: Sell to China!!

Yep, we all know that China is the cruelest country on Earth, caring little for any other species. So, obviously there will be a market there for dead baby seal products from the horrific Canadian baby seal slaughter!

We’ve written countless articles on the cruelty in China – here is one: http://geari.blogspot.com/2006/03/crash-course-in-unbelievable-cruelty.html

Oh, and here is just one article we’ve done about the annual baby seal slaughter done by Canada every year: http://geari.blogspot.com/2009/03/sick-cruel-canada-begins-its-annual.html

Read on to see just how great this cruel friendship is. Sad to see that instead of getting the point, Canada is sticking to it’s cruel ways and will keep selling the products of dead, tortured baby seals.

Article:

Canada banking on Chinese appetite for seal meat to offset losses from EU ban

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/canada-ink-deal-sell-seal-meat-oil-china-20110112-063220-068.html

By The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – Wed, 12 Jan 3:38 PM EST

A seal hunter drags a harp seal back to his snowmobile during the annual seal hunt …

BEIJING, China - China has agreed to import Canadian seal meat and oil in a deal the federal government hopes will create new markets for the embattled industry.

Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced the agreement Wednesday in a conference call from

Beijing, where she is trying to promote Canadian seafood and seal products.

Shea said the deal will take effect Thursday and make Canada the only country allowed to export seal meat and oil to the massive Chinese market.

"For Canada, sealing is about more than fur — the trade of other seal products represents a growing share of what is already a multimillion-dollar business," she said.

"This is all part of the bigger picture of growing this industry to its full potential."

But animal rights activists say Canadian processors could have a hard time selling the maligned products in China, which they say has little appetite for the meat and is joining a growing number of countries that view the seal hunt as inhumane.

Rebecca Aldworth, a Canadian spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, said she was in China in November to screen footage from last year's seal hunt off eastern Canada.

Aldworth said there is rising opposition to the hunt and a reluctance to accept the products as food sources.

"I don't believe there is any future for the Canadian sealing industry in China," she said from Montreal.

"I'm confident the people of China will reject these products of cruelty just as the rest of the world has done."

Shea said it's hoped any new markets in China will offset expected losses from a recently imposed ban on the importation of seal products into the European Union.

She couldn't put a dollar value on the possible seal meat and oil exports, but said it will be up to the industry to promote a product they have tried for years to introduce to the Asian country.

"Initialling this arrangement of course means we now have access, but it will be up to the industry to ensure that we actually start selling some of these products into the marketplace," she said.

China is the third largest export market of Canadian seafood products, with an average of over $300 million in exports annually.

Only a fraction of the quota of 330,000 seals was caught last year, with many sealers choosing to stay home. Korea and Japan are the only other countries that buy edible seal products.

Participation in the seal hunt has been falling since the introduction of the EU ban last year and a decrease in markets.

Fisheries officials estimate that about 5,000 individuals derive some income from sealing.

In 2007, the landed value of the harp seal harvest was $12 million and the average price per pelt received by sealers was approximately $52, compared to $14 in 2009 and about $23 last year.