- "I think that the Canadian government has effectively
declared war on seals."
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- LONDON (CP) - Canada's international
reputation has been damaged by the seal hunt, a British cabinet minister
said Tuesday.
-
- In a parliamentary debate, Foreign Office Minister Mike
O'Brien said the British government is pushing Canada to ban seal hunting
for commercial purposes. "I know that it is a beautiful country whose
attitude to most things is very similar to ours," he was quoted as
saying in a report by Britain's Press Association news agency.
-
- "The way in which seal hunting and seal clubbing
goes about does Canada's reputation a lot of damage."
-
- The debate was held in Westminster Hall, the second debating
chamber of the House of Commons, after 159 members of Parliament signed
a motion on seal hunting brought forward by a Conservative MP.
-
- "There is no way we have been convinced that the
action of killing these baby seals is anything other than cruel,"
said Tory MP David Amess. "I think that the Canadian government has
effectively declared war on seals."
-
- Canada has a yearly seal-hunt quota of 275,000 animals,
but Ottawa permitted an extra 32,000 seals to be taken in 2002.
-
- O'Brien said Britain also has concerns about statistics
that show 98 per cent of seals are killed humanely.
-
- "If two per cent are killed cruelly, that is still
thousands of seals," he added.
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- © The Canadian Press, 2003
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- http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/031104/w110434.html
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