Condemning the hunting of dolphins and small whales for slaughter as meat and fertilizer or for eventual sale to theme parks and aquaria, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) on April 7th introduced a senate resolution, S.RES.99, to help end the practice known as "drive hunts" and urged participating countries to stop the brutal treatment of these animals.
Drive hunts are run by fishers who use scare tactics to herd, chase, and corral the animals into shallow waters where they are trapped and then killed or hauled off live to be sold into captivity. The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization, and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society oppose all killing of marine mammals in commercial hunts.
"The inhumane slaughter of these animals is utterly senseless and it must be stopped," Sen. Lautenberg said. "The over-exploitation of these highly social and intelligent animals for decades has resulted in the serious decline, and in some cases, the commercial extinction of these species."
The resolution also calls on the United States government to take affirmative steps to expand the purview of the International Whaling Commission to allow it to protect dolphins and small whales, referred to as small cetaceans, as part of its mandate and to make full use of all appropriate diplomatic mechanisms and laws, including trade measures, to put an end to the drive hunts in Japan and other countries.
The cruelty endured by dolphins and whales caught in drive hunts is immense. Aboard motorized boats, drive hunt fishers loudly bang metal pipes over the side of their boats to disorient the animals and drive them toward shore where they are trapped by nets and stabbed with long knives, usually just behind the blowhole or across the throat.
Many of the animals eventually die from blood loss and hemorrhagic shock or their spinal cord is severed. Fishers sometimes use cranes to haul them out of the water by their tails, often while still alive, to transport them to a nearby slaughterhouse where they are butchered away from public view.
"Senator Lautenberg is to be applauded for taking the important step of introducing this resolution to protect the animals from the brutal treatment of drive hunts," said Kitty Block, director of treaty law, oceans and wildlife protection for The Humane Society International, the international arm of The HSUS. "We will continue our efforts to expose this cruelty and educate the public to put an end to this inhumane practice."
Fishers have killed small cetaceans along the coastlines of Japan for centuries with no regard for the humaneness or sustainability of the hunt. Currently, up to 20,000 small cetaceans of several species are killed in Japanese drive and harpoon hunts each year. In the last two decades, more than 400,000 have been slaughtered in Japan alone.
Today, some dolphins caught during Japanese drive hunts are kept alive and set aside for sale to theme parks and aquaria, fetching tens of thousands of dollars each. The high pay off by theme park officials for these animals provides fishers with motivation and justification to continue the drives.
"If marine park patrons knew the brutality and misery suffered by these magnificent animals who appear 'happy' as they jump through hoops and perform other tricks for the audience, most would undoubtedly be horrified," said Dr. Naomi A. Rose, marine mammal scientist for The HSUS. "The fact that facilities purporting to be caretakers of marine mammals also subsidize slaughters of those same species must be publicized worldwide."
"Procurement of animals for entertainment through these grisly drive hunts is not only a violation of the code of ethics of many of these facilities, it is a violation of the public trust on the grounds of conservation and animal welfare," said Courtney S. Vail, U.S. representative for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
The gruesome conduct of drive hunts was first caught on film in the 1980s by Hardy Jones, executive director of Blue Voice (bluevoice.org), an organization that works to end the killing of dolphins and whales. Today, Jones continues to document this and other marine atrocities, and his work in the field has been a major impetus in bringing the issue to the current legislative table.
The HSUS is the nation's largest animal protection organization with nearly nine million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals and equine protection, wildlife and habitat protection, animals in research and farm animals and sustainable agriculture. The HSUS protects all animals through education, advocacy, litigation, investigation, legislation and fieldwork. The non-profit organization is based in Washington, DC and has regional offices across the country. On the Web at www.hsus.org.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is the global voice for the protection of whales, dolphins and their environment. WDCS aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate continuing threats to cetaceans and their habitats through campaigns, field projects, scientific research, educational outreach and legal advocacy. The charity was established in 1987 and now has supporters worldwide and offices in the U.S., the U.K., Argentina, Australia and Germany. On the web at www.wcds.org.
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