India Has Officially Banned The Import Of Seal Skin And Meat

Choosing to end the cycle of animal abuse, India has just taken a bold step towards prohibiting the import of seal in any form sparing the lives of thousands of seals from commercial slaughter. Every single year thousands of seals are brutally clubbed to death or shot to turn their skin and fur into various products. India’s decision to ban the seal products follows more than 36 countries including 28 European Union member states. This decision is a major blow to Canada’s commercial seal slaughter industry, which is considered to be the largest industry with killing more than 2 million seals since 2002.

For the past several years the Humane Society International/India has been the only NGO documenting the cruel seal hunt in Canada, and have been campaigning for the ban for quite some time now. Hailing the decision of India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), N.G. Jayasimha, the managing director of HIS/India said “We are delighted that our appeal to the Government of India to take a stand against this cruelty has produced a result after 4 long years. With dwindling world markets for seal products, the Canadian sealing industry is counting on countries like India and China to import the seal fur, oil and meat that other nations refuse to buy and I am glad that India has chosen compassion over cruelty. We are certain that this choice will be the last nail in the coffin for the sealing industry.” The DFFT had previously prohibited the import of a liver extract of ducks.

While fur was a major go-to product in the fashion industry, over time prominent designers and brands like Versace and Gucci made waves by declaring to cease the use of animal fur in any of their collections. Slowly the tides of the fur trade and import are turning because in the end fur is only appealing on its original owner.