Scientists call for Japan to stop 'inhumane' dolphin hunting

[Guest guest]

Crossposted from another Newsgroup

http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/11/20/scientists_cal\

l_for_japan_to_stop_inhumane_dolphin_hunting/

 

Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:33 pm (PST)

Scientists call for Japan to stop 'inhumane' dolphin hunting

By Associated Press Writer, Edtfonmrssfl | November 20, 2006

 

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. "