Willie Nelson

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Help us send a powerful message to the Japanese dolphin hunters and their government:

STOP THE DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER!

THIRD ANNUAL DOLPHIN MARCH AND RALLY

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Washington, D.C.

March – 12:00 p.m. at Dupont Circle
(Conn Ave. & 19th St.)

Rally – 1:00 p.m. at the Japanese Embassy
(2520 Mass Ave.)

Rain or Shine!

For other venues around the world, please visit www.savejapandolphins.org

2006 Washington, DC Dolphin Protest

WHAT: The Animal Welfare Institute is coordinating the Washington, D.C. event for the International Day of Protest Against the Dolphin Slaughter. If you live in the area, please join us for a street theater reenactment of the brutal Japanese drive hunts. Beginning at Dupont Circle, “fishermen” will “drive” pods of “dolphins” to the Japanese Embassy, where we will end with a rally to voice our abhorrence of the Japanese dolphin hunts. All are welcome to join in along the walking route or at the Embassy.

WHY: Japanese fishermen brutally chase and kill thousands of dolphins and small whales annually. These cruel massacres are conducted every fall through spring in a handful of towns, causing a systematic serial depletion of local dolphin species. These days, the hunts are also used to provide select dolphins to marine theme parks that pay tens of thousands of dollars for capturing star attractions, likely subsidizing the hunts with this infusion of funds. The remaining animals are used for human food – even though the meat is often contaminated with mercury– or turned into pet food and fertilizer. (see fact sheet below)

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE: Everyone! Non-governmental organizations, schools, clubs, businesses and concerned citizens are encouraged to attend. Please contact your friends and neighbors, local schools, civic clubs and anyone else who may be interested in taking part in this rally and march for the dolphins.

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

FACT SHEET:

Each year in Japan, approximately 20,000 dolphins and small whales are butchered horrifically in the biggest massacre of its kind around the world. Thousands of dolphins and whales are killed in drive hunt fisheries, which occur from October to March in a few remote Japanese fishing towns. These mass slaughters have taken place for centuries and have systematically decimated many species of dolphin. When one species becomes depleted, the fishermen move on to another. Bottlenose dolphins are the current victims.

Fishermen in Taiji, Futo and elsewhere use boats and manmade noise to drive schools 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 for size and suitability, a few dolphins from each pod are chosen for the aquarium industry by trainers in wetsuits. 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 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 blood. Most die after writhing in agony.

Some of the animals who are killed are also eaten, even though their meat is highly contaminated from pollutants such as mercury. Most consumers are unaware of the danger. The demand for dolphin meat has been dwindling so the Japanese government has started serving the toxic meat to school children. This has continued despite recent objections from Taiji City Councilmen to stop.

The media on this issue within Japan is stringently controlled. Many Japanese citizens do not know or fully understand the extent of the cruelty that takes place on their shores. If they did, they might persuade the Japanese government to stop endorsing the hunts each year by setting catch quotas. In an effort to conceal the barbarity of the drive hunts, the Japanese authorities instruct the drive fishermen to hide the drives from outside eyes. This is done by covering the water with blue tarpaulin sheeting while the slaughtering takes place and by closing off the roads to the towns to outsiders during the hunts.

This year, thousands of groups and citizens are taking collective action by staging the third 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 Tuesday, September 25, 2007 around the world. If you aren’t in the Washington, DC area, please click here to find a location near you.

To learn more about the Japanese drive hunts and to find out about a protest in your area, go to www.savejapandolphins.org

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Tags: Animal Rights, Peace

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