[LINK] "Inuits demonstrate against Debenhams fur ban"

[rfmcdonald]

The English-language version of Denmark's Politiken carries the news of Greenlanders' displeasure that a high-end Danish store is no longer going to stock goods that could trace their origins to Greenland's seal hunt.

Might this have long-term repercussions re: the Danish-Greenlandic constitutional link? I wonder.

On Tuesday, Denmark’s upmarket Magasin store is to stop all sales of products made from furs from wild animals or from pelts that have not resulted from food production.

Magasin, which is owned by Debenhams of the United Kingdom, is one of the latest outlets to target fur sales, as a result of campaigns by animal rights activists to stop the global seal cull. Magasin’s decision is a particular thorn in the eye of Greenland Inuits, who are part of the Danish commonwealth.

In the light of Magasin’s decision, a group of Greenland Inuit hunters is to travel to Copenhagen in order to demonstrate at a happening on May 1 to highlight the problems for indigenous hunters caused by Europe-wide bans on sealskin sales.

“When you live in Greenland, you live from maritime resources. We have always done that, as that is what there is. Hunters in the outlying districts in particular find it difficult to feed their families when the sealskin trade drops, as they have no alternatives. Many of them have become dependent on social aid over the past couple of years,” says Leif Fountain, chairman of the Greenland Hunters’ Association, himself a fisherman and hunter for the past 27 years.

While Canadian hunters use clubs for about a third of their cull, Greenland Inuit use rifles, with wastage only occurring if an animal is only wounded and escapes before a hunter reaches it.

[. . .]

Sara Olsvig, a Greenland member of the Danish Parliament, says that the EU is mainly responsible for the sealskin crisis in Greenland by banning imports of seal products into the Union. Although the ban includes an exception for indigenous, sustainable hunts, the EU has not informed customs authorities, businesses and consumers that sealskin from Greenland is acceptable.

“This is not just an animal welfare issue, it is also about a people’s right to live off the resources we have and to maintain a basic part of our culture and identity,” says Olsvig.