News Release

7th April 2004

FABRICANT CONDEMNS SEAL CULL

Michael Fabricant has joined Roger Gale MP, President of the Conservative Animal Welfare Group, in condemning the resumption of the Canadian Seal Cull on the ice floes off Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

Michael Fabricant who is a member of the Group says: "This barbaric practice is carried out under the guise of 'protecting the fish stocks' but is, in fact, a licensed slaughter of baby and vulnerable seals to provide pelts for the fur trade. The method of 'execution', by hakapik, is brutal and imprecise. Observers are told that 'the seals die instantly'. In many cases they do not. Roger Gale has seen for himself on Prince Edward Island that still alive, the baby seals are dragged, by the hook on the hakapik, to a central pile to be skinned. The corpses are then left to rot or to be eaten by marine life as the ice floes melt later in the year. It is a lie to suggest, as is often said, that 'the whole animal is used'.

"In Canada the seals are classed as 'fish' and the hunt is referred to as a 'catch' or even a 'harvest'. In reality, the hunt is savage and has no place in civilised society. In the past, the Canadian High Commission has been courteously responsive to expressions of concern and the Canadian Government sensitive to world opinion. As a result, real progress appeared to have been made. Clearly, this is not the case.