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Pregnant whales were hunted
last update: Jun 24, 2009 09:56 AM
From "The Daily Telegraph/News.com Australia" news article: According to conservation group Humane Society International (HSI); Japan's own figures showed the "true, disgusting nature" of the country's whale hunting.
They claim that in secret documents called "Cruise Report", were secretly sent to the IWC's scientific committee before the IWC meeting in Portugal, reveal that a third of the whales Japan harpooned in the Antarctic last summer were pregnant.
The Humane Society International said data from Japan's 2008/2009 hunt showed that of the 679 whales killed, 304 were female and of those numbers 192 pregnant. Four were lactating.
HSI Australia's director Michael Kennedy said "The four lactating females would each have had a calf that would have starved to death." He added that the Japanese data also contained "gruesome" details of how whale foetuses were treated after being torn from their mothers on board the whaling fleet's factory ship.
"They report they measure the length and weight of the foetus, they measure their eyes and take skin samples from the foetus for what they call genetic studies. It is gruesome, useless information which, if it was even needed, could be found without dismembering a foetus."
Article:
The Daily Telegraph/News.com Australia, 24th June 2009
