JAPANESE SLAUGHTER OF WHALES AND PORPOISES
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INTRODUCTION
On Jan. 1, 2006, I underwent a quadruple bypass, with complications.
I promised that if I was allowed to survive I would devote
my remaining time to try and stop animal cruelty and research
brutality. I now realize the immensity of the situation which
involves many countries and customs. I have written numerous
articles that expose brutality to dogs, which I hoped would
at least have some small influence on the problem. My research
shows the US to be high on the list of offenses against animals
and humans.
Many of my stories contain photos that are gross.
My heart goes out to every homeless dog, every slaughtered
whale and porpoise, and horrific mistreatment to sheep, horses,
elephants, and circus animals, rodeo animals, and the list
goes on and on. These photos are only to try and show people
the horrible life that animals live. Maybe I can get at least
person to understand. My observation is that not many care.
How can God allow this to happen to the very creatures he
created? The first story will concern the Japanese atrocities
of whale and porpoise slaughter. I liken this process to the
disgusting slaughter of baby seals by Canada.
The Japanese should be forced to stop this slaughter
immediately. They must not be allowed to continue.
HUMPBACK WHALE
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Japan angers activists with first humpback whale
hunt in decades. Nov. 19, 07
The 'singing species'
was given international protection in 1963.
Shimonoseki, Japan
Japanese whalers set
off into the South Pacific on Sunday with orders to
kill humpback whales for the first time in decades.
The hunt is certain to inflame tensions in the standoff
between anti-whaling forces and Japan. Angry environmental
activists have pledged to chase Japan's whalers to the
Antarctic.
"The Japanese government's scientific whaling program
is a sham," said Karli Thomas, expedition leader
aboard the Greenpeace boat Esperanza, waiting outside
Japanese territorial waters to confront the fleet.
"Whaling has no place in Antarctica. It's a place
of peace and science, and this is not science,"
Thomas said.
The International Whaling Commission, or IWC, allows
Japan's annual research whaling mission, but anti-whaling
activists call it a cover-up for a commercial hunt.
Meat from Japan's scientific catch is sold commercially.
The large-scale hunt for up to 50 humpbacks is thought
to be the first for the species since a 1963 moratorium
that put the whales under international protection.
Scientists say the knobby-headed-humpback whales, a
favorite among whale watchers- are intelligent creatures
that communicate through lengthy "songs."
They grow up to 48 feet long and weigh as much as 40
tons, but are extremely acrobatic, often throwing themselves
out of the water, swimming on their backs with both
flippers in the air, or slapping the water with their
tails.
The Japanese mission was also hunting for 935 Antarctic
minke whales and 50 fin whales through April in what
Japan's Fisheries Agency said would be the largest scientific
whale hunt in the South Pacific.
Four ships left the southern port of Shimonoseki after
a departure ceremony at the wharf. Two observation ships
had left northern Japan on Wednesday.
Japan, a major commercial whaling nation before a comprehensive
ban in 1986, has killed almost 10,500 mostly minke and
Brydes whales under a research permit issued by the
IWC - and it's catch is growing.
This season's target of up to 1,035 whales is more than
double the number the country hunted a decade ago.
International bans on humpback whaling were agreed on
in the 1950s and 1960s, after they were hunted to near
extinction, but a few are killed under a subsistence
program in Greenland and the Caribbean.
The Associated Press |
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