FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Group Unveils Restaurants
Selling Controversial
Shark-Fin Soup
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 27
– The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is leading an effort with support from
fellow animal protection and conservation organizations to contact restaurants
in the Washington Metropolitan Area that currently serve the highly
controversial shark-fin soup, asking that they consider the precarious
status of many of the targeted species and stop selling the dish immediately.
It is well known that this soup is enjoyed as a
delicacy in Asia – one bowl can go for as much as $100 – but the extent of its
sale in the
United States is
not publicized. “I was shocked to find out that so many local restaurants sell
shark-fin soup,” said AWI Research Assistant Serda Ozbenian.
“I’m sure most Americans would be horrified to find out that their neighborhood
Chinese restaurant supports such a brutal industry.”The latest estimates show
that as many as 73 million sharks are killed yearly for the shark fin
industry, and the animals’ slow reproductive rates make them extremely
vulnerable to extinction. The inhumane and wasteful methods used to
acquire shark fins are just as disturbing. Because of weak laws and
poor enforcement, millions of sharks are “finned” while still alive,
and their helpless bodies are thrown back into the water, where they
endure long, painful deaths from suffocation, blood loss or predation
by other species.
President Bill Clinton signed the Shark-Finning Prohibition Act in 2000, in an
effort to curb the practice. This legislation made it unlawful to possess a
shark fin in US waters without a corresponding carcass. Many other countries
also implemented some restrictive measures on shark finning, but they have
proven insufficient in stopping the practice.“Fortunately, the combination of
the cruelty of shark-finning and the perilous decline in shark
populations, along with the related effects on the marine ecosystem as
a whole, have deterred many consumers around the world from eating
shark fin products,” Ozbenian said. “We hope that local restaurants
serving shark-fin soup will also re-evaluate their decisions, for the
sake of sharks and marine ecosystems.”
A list of Washington, D.C.-area restaurants that sell shark-fin soup and a
fact sheet on the practice of shark-finning are available from AWI. The
organization will be extending its campaign to other cities around the country.
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Contact:
Serda Ozbenian, (703) 836-4300
The Animal Welfare Institute has worked for over
50 years to reduce the unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted on
animals by humans. Campaigns include saving whales from commercial
slaughter, ending the use of brutal traps, developing alternatives for
and improving the treatment of animals used for experimentation, and
protecting endangered species. For more information, please visit
www.awionline.org.
