Group Wants Japan to End Dolphin Hunting

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ENN FULL STORY

Group Wants Japan to End Dolphin Hunting

 

November 21, 2006 — By Associated Press

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In Japanese villages each year,

local fishermen hunt for large numbers of dolphins by

herding them into shallow coves and then, scientists

say, attacking them with knives and even eviscerating

them alive.

 

Now, a broad-based coalition including marine

scientists and aquarium workers is demanding that the

Japanese end these government-sanctioned dolphin

drives, which opponents criticize as an inhumane

annual practice that targets an intelligent and

self-aware species.

 

" They're dying this sort of long, slow, painful,

excruciating death, " said Dr. Paul Boyle, the former

director of the New York Aquarium and current chairman

and chief executive of The Ocean Project, a

Providence-based coalition that is helping coordinate

the effort.

 

The group is sponsoring an online petition that asks

the government to halt the huntings.

 

The Japanese say the practice is a long-standing

cultural and commercial tradition. Takumi Fukuda,

fisheries attache for the Japanese embassy in

Washington, said fishermen have tried to quicken the

dolphins' deaths to lessen their suffering and to

maintain the quality of meat.

 

But it was impossible, he said, to " avoid the cruelty

completely. "

 

" We should understand that all killing scenes of

animals contain certain cruelty, " Fukuda said in an

e-mail interview.

 

In promoting their " Act for Dolphins " campaign, the

scientists highlight dolphins' intelligence, keen

sense of self-awareness and a cognitive functioning

that they say is similar to that of apes.

 

" They have the intellect to understand what is going

on, " said Lori Marino, senior lecturer in neuroscience

and behavioral biology at Emory University in Atlanta

and one of the organizers. " We believe that that means

that they undergo a great deal of suffering during

this process. "

 

The practice survives in just a few outposts in Japan,

primarily in the coastal villages of Taiji, in western

Japan, and Futo, 62 miles southwest of Tokyo. It runs

through the fall into the spring. Boyle said that

while the Japanese contend dolphins compete with

fishermen for fish, there is no scientific support for

that claim.

 

The scientists said fishermen are able to corral large

numbers of dolphins into nets by banging metal rods

into the water, creating a sort of acoustic barrier.

 

From there, the scientists said, the dolphins are

" dispatched in a brutal manner: speared, hooked,

hoisted into the air by their tails, and finally

eviscerated alive. "

 

Marino and other scientists said the dolphins have

been used as pet food and fertilizer, with their meat

distributed across Asia.

 

Animal welfare groups already condemn the practice.

The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, for

instance, has a code of ethics that prohibits its

members from displaying animals acquired through these

hunts.

 

But Marino said this campaign was significant because

of its active involvement of marine scientists.

 

Diana Reiss, director of marine mammal research at the

New York Aquarium and one of the coalition leaders,

said she met with representatives of Japan's

government at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, but

that her concerns went unheeded.

 

" I don't think it's very well-known in Japan by the

people themselves, " Reiss said.

 

The coalition is trying to collect one million

signatures for a petition it plans to present to the

Japanese government.

 

But Fukuda said countries have varied attitudes about

how to handle animals, and that one nation should not

force its ideals on another.

 

" The Japanese dolphin fisheries are conducted not in

the U.S. waters but in the Japanese waters, " Fukuda

said. " There is no international treaty in which Japan

is a member and has officially authorized global

standards for humanitarian handling of animals. "

 

Source: Associated Press