Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is promising a war with animal rights groups over a possible European ban of Canadian seal products.

A declaration calling for such a ban has been signed by 386 lawmakers within the European Union, EU officials said Wednesday.

Loyola Hearn says he is prepared to wage a war to protect the Atlantic seal hunt.
(CBC)

Hearn said European politicians have been misinformed by animal rights activists, who have refocused efforts on the annual hunt off Canada's East Coast.

"What happens when they stop the seal hunt? What's next? Is it the slaughter of lambs?" said Hearn, who represents a St. John's-area riding.

"They're already after chicken. Lobster is becoming a target. So where does it stop? As far as we're concerned, it stops right here, and if they want a war over this, they bloody well got one."

Rebecca Aldworth said the Humane Society of the United States is already winning a public relations war over the seal hunt.
(CBC)

Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States, said her group is already winning a fight with the Canadian government.

HSUS has emerged in recent years as the sharpest critic of the hunt. Among other things, it recruited pop superstar Paul McCartney this winter to campaign against the hunt.

Aldworth told CBC News her group's lobby efforts at the European Parliament are paying off.

"There is a PR war that is going on at this level," Aldworth said.

"But it's a war that I believe we are winning because on our side we have truth, and it's as simple as seeing the commercial seal hunt for yourself."

The sealing industry, however, said its markets have actually been growing in recent years, despite activists' efforts.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the landed value of seal products in Newfoundland and Labrador alone this year was $26.5 million. By comparison, landed values for the entire country in 2005 were $17.5 million, DFO said.

Government figures disputed

Aldworth, though, said she does not believe those figures.

"I have yet to see any concrete evidence that supports the claims of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, that the seal hunt has had such a great value this year," she said.

"The information that is provided to media comes from the DFO, which over the past few years has served as nothing more than a sealing industry lobby group."

Nonetheless, Aldworth said the European lawmakers' declaration is significant because the market for seal products there is substantial.

The major market for seal fur and pelts is Norway, which does not belong to the EU.

Hearn said he is taking the declaration seriously.

"In many of the European countries, as you know, the governments are much more left wing than our own, and it's not very hard to find sympathizers to such causes," Hearn said.

Seal products have been banned in the United States since 1972.

The European declaration, if approved, would not apply to the aboriginal hunt of seals.