EU:Fianna Fáil MEP Seán Ó Neachtain has become embroiled in a bitter dispute with animal rights campaigners for supporting Canadian seal hunters and their right to sell their products in the EU.
Mr Ó Neachtain, who is chairman of the European Parliament's delegation to Canada, was captured on video recently by journalists apparently supporting the controversial seal hunt, which kills 300,000 seals every year.
"I will be supporting the seal hunters because I believe they have the political support and who am I from afar to say to them: stop this?" says Mr Ó Neachtain on a video made available on the internet by the Canadian newspaper, The Telegram (see website http://www.thetelegram.com). The seal hunt has become the focus of a concerted campaign by animal rights groups, which are lobbying the European Commission to place an EU-wide ban on the import of all seal products. Belgium and the Netherlands already ban seal products.
The campaign has attracted several high profile public personalities such as former Beatle Paul MacCartney and Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, who performed a striptease in Paris this week to bring attention to the revival of the seal hunt in Canada.
"The hunt was dead for 20 years, and has been revived not to honour local customs or conserve cod stocks, but because new markets for fur have opened up in Russia and China," said Anderson, who called on consumers to boycott pelts and seal products.
The Irish Council Against Blood Sports criticised Mr Ó Neachtain yesterday over his comments. "We are very shocked and disappointed at his recent statements in which he backed the seal hunters. His support for an internationally condemned mass slaughter of marine animals is an embarrassment to the people of Ireland," said a spokeswoman.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Ó Neachtain said he had no ethical position against the seal hunt if it was carried out in a humane fashion by expert marksmen. But he said it was wrong to say that he was supporting the seal hunt, rather he felt that European MEPs should have no jurisdiction over it. He said that on a visit last year with MEPs to Canada almost all Canadian politicians had voiced support for the seal hunt.
The European Commission is due to publish a report on seal hunting next month and any decision to ban the importation of Canadian seal products would be made after that.