A nation-wide boycott of shark-fin soup, long favoured among some high-spending Chinese diners, is being proposed in the Canadian Parliament this week, according to the Globe and Mail.
A ban had been proposed before by the Opposition NDP party then but the bill was narrowly defeated even though it was supported by the NDP and the Liberal Party.
Last October, the federal Liberals gained power and took over from the federal Conservatives which had a majority and had defeated the bill when it was first proposed.
Now a Liberal MP, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith of Toronto will put forward a private member’s bill as part of a three-part animal welfare bill that will, if passed, also restrict the sale of cat and dog fur and increase the penalties for anyone convicted of animal cruelty.
Some restaurant owners, especially in Vancouver, area already prepared to fight the bill, according to interviews in the Globe and Mail.
Russians believe in caviar, the Chinese believe in shark fin, and the French believe in foie gras,” said David Chung, president of the BC Asian Restaurant Café Owners Association and himself the owner of a Chinese restaurant. “It’s not for somebody who has no such culture to say it’s any good.”
The hunting of sharks for their fins has led to severe declines in shar populations around the world, with WildAid, a conservation group estimating 100 million sharks killed every year.
h/t: Globe and Mail
Photo credit: Flickr, OpenCage
