Seals, Stigma and Survival

The slideshows below includes images of the comments by Swedish-based contributors submitted in 2024 to the public consultations process for the fitness check of the EU seal product ban. According to the European Commission‘s statement on the purpose of the regulatory fitness check:

Seals are hunted in parts of the world for commercial, subsistence and cultural reasons. In 1983, following people’s concerns about animal welfare, the EU banned the import of certain seal pup skins. In 2009, a general ban on placing seal products on the EU market was introduced, with two exceptions. This initiative will assess if the rules in place remain fit for purpose, focusing on their socio-economic impact and their impact on seal populations.

The consultation process ran from 15 May 2024 – 07 August 2024.

The comments captured below represent feedback from Swedish citizens and Swedish based non-governmental organisations and associations (In English). In contrast to contributors to the consultation process from Finland, which were predominately positive toward a review of the ban and desire for changes to the current regulation, the feedback from Swedish contributors is more mixed. However, of the Swedish-based contributors, there was a strong representation of individuals interested in the EU seal product ban being amended.

Please note that though the feedback to the consultation process is a valuable data source, it is not necessarily a representative sample of the population in any of the countries from which there were contributors.

The EU website hosting the consultation feedback states that it cannot guarantee 100 percent accuracy of the feedback translations. As such, the following are copies of the feedback submitted in Swedish and translated on the website.

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Methodology: Screen shots of public consultation comments and downloadable attachments were taken of feedback provided to the “Trade in seal products – fitness check of EU rules” public consultation. The consultation period was 15 May 2024 to 7 August 2024 and the information is open access. You can find out more about the consultation process here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14031-Trade-in-seal-products-fitness-check-of-EU-rules/public-consultation_en.

Search term used: Sweden.

Please note that one comment (ref F3482492) for someone of Swedish origin did not come up in the initial search for comments. Instead it came up when a search was done for consultation feedback using the term “Norway’” Additionally, when a search was done using the term “Greenland” another comment (F3469843) for someone of Swedish origin showed, when it had not during the initial search of the term “Sweden”. These comments are now included in the above slideshows.

There may be more submissions from people from Sweden which did not show up using the website filter. However, the search filter is likely depended on factors like people self-identifying Sweden as their country of origin and a lack of spelling errors in both the original submissions and their subsequent translations.