Madam Speaker, there is an organization called the International Standards Organization which has been working on behalf of a great many countries to develop and draft proposed standards for what would be called acceptable standards for trapping. Those are considered humane or fall within the definition of quick kill. As Members should be aware, it's our belief that organizations such as the international animal rights organizations, when they first proposed to try to wipe out the fur industry, by demanding certain standards they thought we would not be able to meet them. However, we have, for instance, banned the leghold trap for most small species. The progress we've made in meeting the demands of the Europeans, but also ourselves within Canada has been very good. Now that they see the progress, it is our view that many of the animal rights activists are now trying to discredit the work to develop acceptable standards for any type of trapping. They are suggesting that all trapping is inhumane and, therefore, no standard is acceptable. One of the organizations that is now being attacked is this International Standards Organization. It met recently in Ottawa and some of the animal rights activists came in from Europe and were directly involved in some of the discussions and lobbying. What has resulted is no decisions by this organization to accept the draft standards. They will defer to individual countries to make up their own mind to be decided later if standards are acceptable or not. So there is some cause for concern. Those are the developments to date. Thank you.
Stephen Kakfwi on Question 143-12(5): Acceptable Standards For Animal Traps
In the Legislative Assembly on February 18th, 1994. See this statement in context.
Return To Question 143-12(5): Acceptable Standards For Animal Traps
Question 143-12(5): Acceptable Standards For Animal Traps
Item 5: Oral Questions
February 17th, 1994
Page 222
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