Seal Reprieve

Breaking news from Russia: it’s banned the hunt of baby seals — so-called “white coats” — and plans to extend the ban to all seals under a year old. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke out in favor of the ban. Both he and the Russian minister for natural resources, Yuri Trutnev, in announcing the ban, framed the issue, to some extent as one of animal rights, as well as of “civilization” vs. the lack of it. Such language was, frankly, striking. Here’s Trutnev:

“The bloody sight of the hunting of seals, the slaughter of these defenseless animals, which you cannot even call a real hunt, is banned in our country, just as well as in most developed countries, and this is a serious step to protect the biodiversity of the Russian Federation.”

The EU is considering a total ban on the import of seal products, angering the Canadian government, where the annual seal hunt has just begun. (The quota of seals that can be killed was increased this year, too.) One Canadian senator introduced a bill to ban the hunt, but couldn’t find a single co-sponsor for the legislation to advance. “There was silence. Total silence!” he told the New York Times. “I was amazed that not one of my colleagues, from any one of the political parties, would even want to debate the issue.”