Emerging accord on leghold traps comes under fire

Date: 28/11/1996

THE European Union is inching towards a deal with the US, Canada and Russia on 'humane' trapping standards for animals caught for their fur, which it hopes will head off a major trade dispute.

Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard is expected to outline to her colleagues next week a framework deal, hammered out over many months which should allow trade in animal pelts to continue beyond 1996.

But key concessions forced upon the EU by the world's three principal fur producers will spark protests from MEPs and animal welfare campaigners.

They are determined that the Union should honour an earlier decision to ban imports of furs caught using devices they claim are inhumane.

Stanley Johnson, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, described the draft agreement as “a sham which will in no way reduce the suffering of trapped animals”.

Representatives from the four sides met in Brussels for two days this week to try to settle their remaining differences.

Senior European Commission officials suggested afterwards that most of the outstanding problems had been resolved. These included trap killing times for large animals, the species covered by new standards for several types of trap, and the implementation period for the new compromise.

More tricky is the whole legal structure surrounding whatever deal is thrashed out. “We have to decide what happens if research does not find a trap which meets the standards we have agreed as humane. There are also constitutional problems in the US which they will have to solve,” said a Commission official.

All parties to the talks have now returned home to find out whether the deal they have put together is acceptable.

The choice for Bjerregaard is stark. She either has to propose implementing legislation to put the 1991 ban in place or come up with a revised plan which would allow trade to continue but would horrify the animal welfare lobby.

A quadrilateral deal on humane standards would supersede the proposed import ban, but would need the approval of the Council of Ministers, probably by qualified majority.

Environment ministers will discuss the issue on 9 December, but are unlikely to agree on such a contentious proposal in one sitting. Indeed, Johnson is hopeful that a sufficient number of countries will object for the deal to be blocked. However, a Commission official stressed the ban would not be introduced while ministers were still debating the issue.