SANTIAGO,
CHILE (June 26, 2008) – The Bush Administration today hit
a new low by supporting a proposal in favor of killing humpback
whales, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) reports. By giving its
support, the United States broke ranks with the conservation-minded
member nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) who
voted against the proposal. Unfortunately, this is one of several
actions that the United States has taken at this year’s meeting
contrary to its long-held position of supporting whale conservation.
Already this week, Bush Administration lackeys at the meeting have
worked to facilitate a closed-door “deal” to bring about the
resumption of commercial whaling. They have also ignored IWC rules
for reporting transgressions of the IWC Schedule by refusing to
admit that the illegal killing of a gray whale by Makah tribal
members was an infraction of the IWC Schedule. Finally, they have
refused to promote transparency and openness within IWC
deliberations by opposing attempts to include civil society to
observe and participate in the work of the Commission.
“It’s no secret that President Bush’s administration has one of the
worst environmental records in history, but to sacrifice whales and
democracy to placate whaling countries, who have ignored repeated
calls by many of the world’s governments to end whaling, is simply
inexcusable,” said D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the AWI
who is currently attending the meeting.
The proposal to hunt humpbacks was offered by Denmark which sought
the quota on behalf of the native people in its territory of
Greenland – which already has quotas to kill minke, bowhead and fin
whales. Recent studies indicate that a quarter of the meat derived
from killing these whales for “subsistence use” ends up in
supermarkets for commercial sale. Nations opposing the proposal did
so primarily because Greenland has not demonstrated the need for
additional meat.
The United States is one of 24 countries that will engage in secret
meetings over the course of the next year in an attempt to develop a
package deal to “fix” the IWC using a process devised and promoted
by Dr. William Hogarth, US commissioner to the IWC and current chair
of the international body. Hogarth’s plan attempts to “fix” a
convention that is actually only at a stalemate because of the
unwillingness of Japan, Norway, and Iceland to comply with
international opinion and stop whaling – coupled with the failure of
the current administration to use all its powers to permanently end
commercial whaling.
For years, the United States was considered a leader in the
worldwide effort to protect and conserve whales. However, lately its
whale conservation agenda has been replaced by a plan of compromise
and capitulation. Such a dramatic shift in policy is inconsistent
with the beliefs of most of Americans and of the United States House
of Representatives, which recently unanimously passed H. Con. Res.
350, demanding that the United States strongly support whale
conservation, oppose any weakening of the commercial whaling
moratorium approved by the IWC in 1982, and oppose any new form of
whaling.
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Contact:
Susan Millward, (202) 640-9600
For over 57
years, the Animal Welfare Institute has been the leading voice for
animals across the country and on Capitol Hill to reduce the sum
total of pain and fear inflicted on animals by humans. To learn more
about us, please visit
www.awionline.org.
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