Willie Nelson

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4th ANNUAL RALLY FOR DOLPHINS

Join the Global Protest Against the Japanese Dolphin Hunts

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Washington, D.C.

11:30 a.m. -     March starts at Dupont Circle (Conn. Ave. & 19th St.)

12:15 p.m. –     Rally in front of Japanese Embassy
(2520 Mass Ave.)

Rain or Shine!

To RSVP and find out what else you can do to help, please call (703) 836-4300 or email: serda@awionline.org

Not in DC, but interested in helping?  Click here to find a rally near you.

EVERY YEAR Japanese fishermen brutally chase and kill thousands of dolphins and small whales.

EVERY YEAR concerned citizens around the globe demand that the Japanese government end the brutality.

STREET THEATER EVENT

Please join us for a street theater reenactment of the brutal Japanese drive hunts. Beginning at Dupont Circle, fishermen will drive pods of dolphins up Massachusetts Avenue to the Japanese Embassy, where we will end with a rally to voice our outrage over the Japanese dolphin hunts.  All are welcome to join in along the walking route or at the Embassy.

Click here to enlarge

Fact Sheet About the Japanese Dolphin Hunts

Each year in Japan, approximately 20,000 dolphins and small whales are butchered horrifically in the biggest massacre of its kind in the world. These mass slaughters have taken place for centuries and systematically decimated many species of small cetacean. Closest to shore are the drive hunt fisheries that occur from Fall through Spring in a few Japanese fishing towns.

Fishermen in Taiji, Futo and elsewhere use boats and manmade noise to drive pods of dolphins into shallow bays. A net is then thrown across the bay to trap them. The dolphins are herded close to the shore as fishermen tighten the net. The confinement makes the dolphins panic and thrash around in terror as they try to escape.

After being driven to the shore and measured, a few dolphins from each pod are chosen for the aquarium industry by trainers. The dolphins are sold for tens of thousands of dollars each. The growing demand for live dolphins by the captive marine park industry is providing financial incentive that supports and encourages these brutal hunts.

Other dolphins may be wounded and drown in a frantic chaos as they try to escape. Mothers try to protect their dying young. Thousands are butchered with knives and spears, and the sea turns red with the animals’ blood. Most die after writhing in agony for many minutes.

Some of the animals who are killed are also eaten, even though their meat is highly contaminated from pollutants such as mercury. Many Japanese citizens are unaware of the danger or the extent of the cruelty that takes place on their shores as the media on this issue within Japan is stringently controlled.  The demand for dolphin meat has been dwindling so the Japanese government has started serving the toxic meat to school children in a desperate attempt to foster an appetite for dolphin meat despite the threat to the children’s health. This has continued over the objections from Taiji City Councilmen to stop.

For the fourth year in a row, thousands of groups and citizens around the world are taking collective action by participating in the annual International Day of Protest Against the Dolphin Slaughter. We plan to do this every year until the annual dolphin slaughters end. Peaceful rallies outside Japanese embassies and consulates take place on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 around the world.
To learn more about the Japanese drive hunts, go to www.savejapandolphins.org.  To find out about rallies in other cities, go to www.awionline.org/oceans/whaling/Abolish_the_Dolphin_Slaughter.htm.

If you are unable to attend any of the rallies, please send a message to the Japanese Prime Minister, urging him to stop the dolphin drive hunts:

Mr. Yasuo Fukuda
Prime Minister of Japan
Fax: +81-3-3581-3883
E-mail: http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html

Send a copy of your letter to:

Ambassador Ryozo Kato
Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C.
2520 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008-2869
E-mail: jicc@embjapan.org

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