Whale meat 'made into dog food'

[matriarch]

Whale meat 'made into dog food'


Meat from whales caught under Japan's "research" programme is so abundant that it is being sold as pet food, according to a UK conservation group.

Thousands of tonnes of whale meat has been stockpiled as more animals are killed each year, says the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

The Japanese government has attempted to sell the whale meat to schools but the price has continued to fall.

A company is selling meat on the web as "healthy and safe natural" dog food.

"A quiet whale meat boom is starting," says the website hakudai.com.

"The number of pet-owners who care about their animals' health are growing, recognising the nutritious value of whale meat," it adds.

"Now the demand and the sales are soaring."

Nutritious and delicious

The website describes whale meat as "organic" and fished "freshly out of the water".

Mark Simmonds, director of science at WDCS, said: "Whaling is a cruel activity and the fact that Japan is killing these amazing animals to produce dog food is shocking.

"We have heard many arguments from Japan over the years about why whaling is necessary to them but they have never stated that they needed to kill whales to feed their dogs."

A global moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since the 1980s, but hunting for scientific research is permitted under the rules of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The hunting is condemned by most conservation groups on the grounds that it is inhumane, unnecessary and may harm fragile populations.

Japan and Iceland run scientific programmes, while Norway lodged a formal objection to the moratorium and maintains an openly commercial operation.

A number of indigenous peoples are also allowed to hunt under tight restrictions.

Expanding the kill

The sheer volume of Japan's operations makes it the principal target for the wrath of conservation groups.

In the current hunting season, it launched a programme called JARPA-2 which doubles its annual minke whale catch from Antarctic waters.

JARPA-2 will remove 935 minkes and 10 fin whales each year; while its other research programme JARPN takes 100 sei whales, 100 minkes, 50 Bryde's whales and five sperm whales annually from the north Pacific.

The IWC obliges countries practising scientific whaling to process what they catch, and the meat from Japan's programmes has always found its way into restaurants.

Last year, it initiated a scheme to distribute whale meat to schools, and a fast-food chain began selling whale burgers.

But the latest news suggests demand from Japan's human population is running some way behind the recently expanded supply.

WCDS quotes research showing that the price of meat from Bryde's whales has halved over the last five years, with other species falling as well.

Protest for survival

Most whale species are at risk of extinction, and last year 63 members of the IWC's Scientific Committee condemned the JARPA expansion.

"With the new proposal, Japan will increase its annual take... to levels approaching the annual commercial quotas for Antarctic minke whales that were in place prior to the moratorium," they declared.

In January a group of 17 countries, including the UK, mounted a formal diplomatic protest.

"The UK is totally opposed to any activity that undermines the present moratorium on commercial whaling," said Britain's fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw at the time.

"We urge Japan to reconsider its position and end this unjustified and unnecessary slaughter which is regarded by many countries and their public as a means to bypass the IWC moratorium."

Japan maintains that hunting is part of its cultural heritage, which other nations have no right to condemn.

 

[impressive]

The website describes whale meat as ... fished "freshly out of the water".

As opposed to?


Ah, "research" ... so that's what they're calling "greed" these days.

 

[Liar]

I had whale once in Iceland, at a supposedly fancy restaurant. I wasn't very aware of the controversy then, and I'm not 100% sure of it now either. Yes, there are whales in the risk zone of extinction. But is that all whale spieces? There are oher fishing industry issues that from an ecologic perspective are far more acute. Like the draining of white meat fish and certain types of krell in the Baltic sea, the North sea and the North Atlantic.

But whales are cuter, and seen as individuals, so we care.

Anyway, whale tasted and felt like sponge. So regardless of enviromental concerns, I say let the whales have it.

Save the whales,
or shave the welsh.

 

[matriarch]

I had whale once in Iceland, at a supposedly fancy restaurant. I wasn't very aware of the controversy then, and I'm not 100% sure of it now either. Yes, there are whales in the risk zone of extinction. But is that all whale spieces? There are oher fishing industry issues that from an ecologic perspective are far more acute. Like the draining of white meat fish and certain types of krell in the Baltic sea, the North sea and the North Atlantic.

But whales are cuter, and seen as individuals, so we care.

Anyway, whale tasted and felt like sponge. So regardless of enviromental concerns, I say let the whales have it.

Save the whales,
or shave the welsh.

Most whale species are at risk of extinction

Why kill them if you can't even get your population to eat the meat? What's the point? And then feed it to dogs?? Just leave them alone, if you must research, do it like most of the other researchers do all round the world, do it on live animals. For most research there is no need to kill them.

 

[Liar]

Why kill them if you can't even get your population to eat the meat? What's the point? And then feed it to dogs?? Just leave them alone, if you must research, do it like most of the other researchers do all round the world, do it on live animals. For most research there is no need to kill them.

Yep. Though I have not the foggiest clue what the research they are doing is. It's possible that dissection is nessecary.

But it should of course be kept to a minimum then. I know that the Icelandic "reseach" quotas are greatly exaggerated, and just an excuse to create an excess market for the meat. (They like it. I don't) Greenpeace and others are on their tail about that, but not because they hunt an endangered spieces. (There's that too, but only for some of the whales they hunt.) But because they and Japan too, I assume, continue to be sneaky about it, to maintain the PC image, instead of saying straight out that "Yeah, we want a domestic whale fishing industry." Like Norway does.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

There are times, when I wish I owned a submarine, complete with torpedo tubes.

I'm by no means a rabid green, but this is nothing more than wanton and malicious destruction of an animal population.

I would dearly love to sink their whaleing fleet, captain Nemo style, one at a time. While the others wonder what hit them.

 

[R. Richard]

A terrible end for magnificent creatures.

JMHO.

 

[Lisa Denton]

Whale meat 'made into dog food'



Japan maintains that hunting is part of its cultural heritage, which other nations have no right to condemn.

Why don't they just let these doggies go out hunting and kill thier own whales, so they can call it sportsmanlike. You know, give em a rowboat and a fishin pole, maybe even a spear-gun and tell em "Lassie, go kill you a whale for supper".
Also I have never heard this part about Japanese dogs hunting whales as part of thier cultural heritage.

It is too bad that greenpeace and other groups have degenerated into such laughable bunches of bumbling bozos and dangerous psychos. Efforts to kill peoples to save trees like putting headless nails into trees to kill or maim innocent sawmill workers, by a few environmentalists, has made many environmentalist groups seem to stupid and dangerous to support.

If greenpeace could get back on the path of reasonable co-existance with mankind, and become more serious and get more international support, they might be able to have a greater impact. Right now many peoples think they just sit around smoking bongs and sayin "save the redtip warblebats" or some other species that only exists in thier hallucinations.

I am a tree-hugger and bunny-lover but don't want some stoned psycho attemting to save the world on my behalf.

These stupid Japanese fuckers need somebody to stick a dictionary under thier noses and turn to "endangered species" and "hunted into extinction".

My doggie is boycotting whalemeat, especialling the imported japanese kinds, and eating only cats until this emergency is past.

 

[matriarch]

There are times, when I wish I owned a submarine, complete with torpedo tubes.

I'm by no means a rabid green, but this is nothing more than wanton and malicious destruction of an animal population.

I would dearly love to sink their whaleing fleet, captain Nemo style, one at a time. While the others wonder what hit them.

I'm with you. Sign me up, Cap'n.

 

[oggbashan]

When young (was I ever young?) I went on a tour of a whale processing factory in Southern Spain.

The operation was fully mechanised and efficient, stripping a small whale of its useful parts in about half an hour. It was also very bloody, messy and stank in the hot Mediterranean sun.

At that time most of the world's fishing countries hunted whale so I felt no ecological concerns although the factory's owners expected that their operation wouldn't continue for the next twenty years and were intending to switch to fish canning. They were right. It didn't last 20 years.

I can still relive the experience of standing next to a whale carcass as it was ripped apart. Now I see the operation as horrific. Then - it was an interesting experience.

So was watching bullfights. I wouldn't want to see either now. The world is a different place and so is our perception of what is acceptable. That is a measure of the success of GreenPeace and similar organisations.

Og