Angry hunters

CANADA: Roger Flowers is not happy with the European Union. The Inuit seal hunter from Labrador says that the EU ’s recent ban on importing seal products has cost him a lot of money. Although the EU ban specifically does not include seals hunted by native groups like the Inuit, prices for seal products have fallen sharply.

“I don’t think it’s very good what they’re doing,” Flowers told CBC News. “A lot of sealers are losing their livelihoods. It’s taken a lot away from me.”

According to Deon Dakins, manager of Nutan Furs in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, seal pelts are currently selling at about $Can 15 (€9). A few years ago, Dakin said, a seal pelt brought about $Can 100 (€62). A seal processing plant owned by the Inuit government in Rigolet , Labrador, has closed as a result of the low prices.

"A lot of sealers are losing their livelihoods," says Inuit hunter Roger Flowers.

Among the groups that campaigned for a ban on commercial sealing is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The group’s vice-president, Bruce Friedrich, says it worked to make Inuit hunters exempt from the ban. “Working against the commercial hunt, that would have a positive effect on prices of pelts for the Inuit,” Friedrich says.

But Inuit representatives say the anti-sealing campaign by PETA and other animal rights groups has destroyed the market for pelts. Flowers plans to invite PETA and other groups to come to Labrador to see the hunt for themselves. “I don’t think it’s cruel,” he says. “If they wanted to know more, some of them should come up and go seal hunting with me. They’d really see what’s going on.”