EU Parliament Votes to End Seal Trade

Even with four weeks to go until the election, Jean is still hard at work on all of the issues that matter. Yesterday, she helped to vote through landmark legislation banning the commercial trade of seal products - while the failure of most MEPs to support tightened regulation of animal testing showed how far we have to go on issues such as these, and how vital Green MEPs are at Strasbourg.

EU PARLIAMENT VOTES TO END SEAL TRADE, BUT FAILS TO PROTECT ANIMALS USED IN EXPERIMENTS

The European Parliament voted this week on two critical pieces on legislation on animals.

An overwhelming majority of Euro-MPs (550 votes in favour, 49 against, 41
abstentions) voted in favour of a ban on the commercial trade of seal products in the EU London's Green Party MEP, Jean Lambert, who voted in favour said:

"This vote is a victory for the global campaign against animal cruelty. Nearly one million seals are slaughtered annually in commercial seal hunts around the world, and the products of those slaughters - primarily fur - are legally traded in the EU. By closing the door on fur and other seal products, Parliament has taken meaningful action to reduce the scale of commercial seal killing."

However, in another development, a report on animal testing was adopted, which failed to make vital improvements for the 12 million animals that are used in experiments in the EU each year.

The London Green MEP continued:

"This vote will be a major disappointment for animal welfare supporters and presents a missed opportunity to tighten the existing regulation on the use of animals in experiments. The EU should be the world leader on research into and use of non-animal testing, but this vote has done little to make progress on this issue.

"A number of critical amendments tabled by the Greens, that could have secured major improvements for animals, were rejected by a majority of MEPs. It is particularly disappointing that MEPs did not even vote for Green proposals that would have at least ensured the phasing out of the use of primates caught in the wild. It is appalling that the Parliament has allowed this practice to continue."