(JP) Film Shows Inhumane Slaughter of Coastal Whales

[Guest guest]

Shocking New Documentary

of Dolphin Slaughter In Japan

 

Film Shows Inhumane Slaughter of Coastal Whales

 

 

See PSA here: http://homepage.mac.com/louieops/FileSharing28.html

 

 

 

The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition joins the Oceanic Preservation Society

(OPS) in releasing a shocking new video of the cruel slaughter of dolphins by

Japanese whalers. Japan is pushing the International Whaling Commission (IWC),

meeting in Santiago, Chile, June 23-27, to overturn the 20-year old commercial

whaling moratorium by allowing it to conduct commercial whaling off its shores.

 

" Dolphins and porpoises are whales, and size doesn't matter, " says Louie

Psihoyos, Executive Director of OPS, who has spent the last three years making a

full-length documentary film on the dolphin slaughter and the high mercury

content of the meat. " The IWC has overlooked the smallest leviathans since the

moratorium was put in place, even though their mandate is to manage all whales.

This short film will shed light on the truth the Japanese whalers don't want the

world to see. "

 

OPS is releasing a short film of recently acquired covert footage of

Japanese whalers slaughtering dolphins, to media groups and delegates to the

IWC. The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition helped in making of the film, which

features the efforts of Ric O'Barry, Director of the coalition and an expert on

dolphins.

 

" The dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, is the most horrendous act of

cruelty, callousness, and waste that I have ever witnessed, " states Ric O'Barry, of Save Japan Dolphins Coalition and an expert on dolphins. " How can

the IWC even consider opening up commercial coastal whaling in Japan, which

would result in more slaughtered whales, more slaughtered dolphins, and more

suffering of these intelligent mammals? "

 

While the IWC maintains a moratorium on commercial whaling around the world

initiated in 1986, the Japan Fisheries Agency continues to allow the slaughter

of more than 20,000 dolphins annually in Japan's coastal waters and conducts

" scientific whaling " in the North Pacific and Antarctica, targeting well over

1,000 whales annually. Meat from the " scientific " whaling is sold in markets.

 

" The IWC knows that Japan's slaughter of whales for so-called scientific

purposes is a ploy to circumvent the commercial whaling ban, yet instead of

taking Japan to task, it may reward Japan for its renegade acts by lifting the

ban, " said DJ Schubert of the Animal Welfare Institute, a Coalition member.

" And it defies belief that the United States, which was instrumental in

achieving the ban, is now the country leading the IWC toward capitulation, " he

added.

 

" Recently, in defiance of both the IWC and the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species, Japan imported whale meat from Iceland and Norway, "

notes David Phillips, Director of Earth Island Institute, a member of the

Coalition. " How can the IWC trust Japan, which kills dolphins in the most cruel

manner imaginable, ignores the international whaling moratorium and slaughters

whales for commercial purposes disguised as science, and now illegally trades

whale meat? "

 

" We are hoping the film will help sway the vote of any IWC delegate that is

thinking of voting with Japan to open up commercial whaling " Psihoyos adds.

" Killing nearly a million small cetaceans is commercial whaling, and allowing

the highly toxic meat to be given away to school children is criminal. Japanese

whalers and their agency accomplices cannot be trusted. "

 

* * * * *

The Coalition to stop the dolphin slaughter consists of Elsa Nature Conservancy

of Japan, the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, In

Defense of Animals, and Animal Welfare Institute. For further information:

http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org