Mixed reaction to delay on ban of fur imports from ‘jaw’ traps

Date: 23/11/1995

By Michael Mann

ANIMAL welfare campaigners have reacted angrily to the European Commission's unanimous decision to postpone the proposed ban on imports of furs from animals caught using jaw-type leghold traps until the end of 1996.

But Canada, which has undertaken a concerted lobbying effort against the introduction of the ban on 1 January, welcomed the decision, claiming it was “good news for animal welfare”. Ottawa says the ban would have forced up to 250,000 trappers in Canada and the US on to social welfare and would be completely contrary to world trade rules.

Justifying the decision, Commission officials claimed that a ban would have hit 170,000 EU workers in the 40,000 small and medium-sized companies involved in the fur trade.

But a representative from the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare rejected the Commission's argument that a delay would allow more time to agree international humane trapping standards.

“The International Standards Organisation has failed to get an agreement over the past eight years, and we can't see any great progress being made in the next year,” an official commented.

This week's decision is not the end of the matter. The proposal to delay the ban for a second time will have to pass through two readings in the European Parliament and be adopted by the Council of Ministers before becoming law.

But Commission officials are confident that although Parliament could delay the Commission's proposal, it could not block it completely. MEPs' likely attitude was highlighted when this week's environment committee meeting reaffirmed its commitment to the implementation of the ban on 1 January 1996.

The UK Environment Secretary John Gummer has already made it clear he will raise the issue at a meeting of EU environment ministers scheduled for 18-19 December.