RSPCA urged to remove freedom label from salmon

Complaint issued after Marine Harvest admitted killing seals at its fish farms

By Nichola workman

Published:

An animal rights group has urged the RSPCA to remove its Freedom Food label from a range of Scottish farmed salmon after producer Marine Harvest admitted killing seals at its fish farms.

Animal Concern’s campaigns consultant John Robins has written to the animal charity in the wake of an announcement of a major deal between Norweigian-owned Marine Harvest and Sainsbury’s.

A fish farm run at Loch Torridon in Wester Ross will produce salmon caught and reared to strict RSPCA welfare standards for the supermarket giant.

The move ensures that 360 jobs at the farm are secured.

But, in a letter to the animal charity, Mr Robbins urges the RSPCA to pull out of the deal, following Marine Harvest’s admission that they shoot seals that attack their stocks.

He said: “The RSPCA have let down the seals and their own supporters by entering into this ludicrous commercial contract.”

And he added: “It makes me extremely angry that, while we are trying to get consumers to stop buying salmon from Marine Harvest and the other factory fish farmers who are shooting seals, the RSPCA are promoting the stuff.

“What are they going to do next? Put Freedom Food labels on Japanese whale meat or sell T-shirts made of Canadian seal fur?”

From May, Sainsbury’s will only source fish from farms in Scotland. The chain currently sells 27% of all the salmon sold in the UK.

Under the plans, the Scottish salmon farms used by Sainsbury’s will also employ responsible management techniques to help protect and maintain the natural environment.

A spokesman for Marine Harvest admitted that “very regrettably” and “from time to time” they do shoot seals that attack their stocks, in line with the law and with the industry’s code of practice.

He added: “This is done as quickly and humanely as possible and in strictly controlled circumstances. Marine Harvest, like all salmon farming businesses, will only do this as a last resort as we deploy other measures to protect our stocks, such as tensioned nets and underwater seal scarers.”

Last night, a spokeswoman for the RSPCA said its standards, which apply to Freedom Food, forbid the routine killing of predators. But she said that there are times, when other efforts to protect livestock have failed, when farmers have to kill a persistent predator.

She added: “The society’s standards require that a predator control plan must be in place, specifying how all possible non-violent precautions will be taken to protect livestock from attack by predators.

“In the case of salmon, sonar equipment is used to deter seals and the salmon nets are kept tight to minimise the possibility of seals getting to the salmon stock.

“Only if all alternative means have been exhausted without success, is lethal control permitted. Under the RSPCA’s standards, this is very much a last resort and the lethal method used must be humane.

“We understand that RSPCA standards have dramatically reduced the incidence of seals being shot.”