BRITISH Members of Parliament have become involved in the latest controversy in the lucrative sex potion trade in the Far East - the sale of 50,000 seal pelts and penises to China.
It is a controversy that is likely to extend to Hong Kong, where seal penises are available, and where the price has risen to about $1,000 after other popular aphrodisiacs, rhino horn and tiger penis, were banned last year.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) claimed yesterday that a recent deal by Newfoundland's Terra Nova Fishery Company, ostensibly to sell sealskins to Shanghai Fisheries General Corporation, was a cover to supply the animals' penises to people wanting to improve their sex drive.
The IFAW spokesman claimed that the deal, which he said was clinched by the visit of Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells to China, was disguised as a trade in pelts because the public would be horrified to discover the animals were being killed solely to satisfy the Asian demand for their genitals.
''This is the case that we hope will bring this issue to the public's attention - but there are many other trading deals, which have traditionally gone through Hong Kong,'' he said.
''To satisfy Asia, at least 100,000 animals - including many females and many pups - will be slaughtered this year during the one month of the year they are most vulnerable - when the females are giving birth.
''The ice will run red with blood, all because some people in Asia have a belief that eating exotic animals will improve their sex drive.'' British MP Tony Banks said more than 100 British MPs, from all political parties, would voice their opposition to Canada ''in the strongest way possible''. They will sign an early day motion - or petition - today.