The International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, supported by 27 global environmental and animal welfare organizations, issued a challenge to the International Olympics Committee to ban products of whales and dolphins from being offered or sold at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“The Olympics are about fair play and international cooperation,” stated David Phillips, Director of the International Marine Mammal Project. “The Japanese hunters’ ways of killing these intelligent, social animals is anything but fair, and the Japan Fisheries Agency has for years flaunted international efforts to protect whales and dolphins.
“Indeed, the International Court at the Hague has ruled against Japan’s whaling practices in Antarctica, calling on Japan to end the hunts,” Phillips added, “and the International Whaling Commission has repeatedly condemned Japan’s whaling and slaughter of dolphins.”
The letter cites the Olympic Committee’s own policy of humane treatment of animals. The killing of whales and dolphins by the Japanese industry is done in the most inhumane manner imaginable, using exploding harpoons, spikes shoved into the necks of dolphins, and attacking young as well as old animals. The bloody slaughter of whales and dolphins by Japanese hunters has been depicted in recent documentaries like The Cove and Whale Wars.
IMMP and other groups have previously sent letters to Japanese Prime Minister Abe urging him to end dolphin and whale hunting in keeping with the spirit of the Olympics. With a global media focus turned on Japan during the upcoming Olympics, it is clear that the Japanese government and its people will suffer embarassment if the small minority who slaughter whales and dolphins continue to control the issue.
The 32nd Olympiad will be held in Tokyo, Japan, from July 24th to August 9th, 2020.
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