No change to Greenland ban on Canadian sealskins

At the Great Greenland general meeting this week in Nuuk, there was no decision about buying seal pelts from Canada, and board members did not say whether they wanted buy Canadian seal pelts again.

But to ensure employment and remain competitive, Great Greenland must make a decision soon on whether they will buy skins again from Canada, said Anders Brøns, Great Greenland’s chairman.

Great Greenland is a government-owned firm that makes high-fashion sealskin garments at a plant in Qaqorqtoq.

Premier Hans Enoksen said his executive will work with Great Greenland and see whether the company should start to import seal pelts from Canada again.

Enoksen said the government’s evaluation on this issue can be expected soon.

Enoksen ordered Great Greenland to stop buying Canadian seal skins last January.

The ban followed a media-generated furor in Denmark after a Danish television network aired video footage supplied by the Humane Society of the United States that purported to show scenes from the 2005 Newfoundland seal hunt.

Enoksen’s home rule government imposed the restriction after getting email from the Danish justice minister, who faced political pressure in Copenhagen.

Aaqaluk Lynge, head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in Greenland, said at the time that the Greenlandic government’s decision was a hasty over-reaction, and a misguided attempt to protect Greenland’s seal skin industry from the animal rights movement.