Fwd: California AWI eAlert: U.S. Company tied to the sale of whale meat - Please ask them to stop

January 24, 2010

January 19, 2010

U.S. Company tied to the sale of whale meat - Please ask them to stop

Dear Humanitarian in California:

FamilyMart is a major retailer in Japan with more than 7,500 convenience stores throughout the country. Recent investigations have found that a quarter of the FamilyMart stores surveyed sell canned whale meat. Please join us in contacting the FamilyMart Group and its American subsidiary, "Famima!!," to encourage them to stop this commercial trade in whale meat.

Famima!! operates

nine stores in California (Culver City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Arcadia) and as a resident of California, the heads of both Famima!! and FamilyMart need to hear from you.

Despite a ban on commercial whaling adopted by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986, Japan continues to hunt whales, claiming that it is for "scientific research." In addition, the majority of Japan's whaling occurs within the boundaries of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, which was established by the IWC in 1994 as a haven for whales. Currently, FamilyMart stores are selling meat from great whale species hunted in both the North Pacific and Antarctic Oceans.

Please contact the headquarters of both Famima!! and FamilyMart and request that FamilyMart permanently ends the sale of all whale products from its stores. For more information about whaling please visit

www.awionline.org/whaling:

Goichi Itokazu, President and CEO

Famima!!

20000 Mariner Avenue, Suite 100

Torrance, CA 90503

Junji Ueda, President and CEO

FamilyMart Japan

4-26-10, Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku

Tokyo, 170-8404

JAPAN

Please share our "Dear Humanitarian" eAlert with family, friends and co-workers. Perhaps you will want to organize a protest at one of the Famima!! stores. As always, we are grateful for your help.

Sincerely,

Cathy Liss

President