Anti-whaling campaign targets 'cruelty' of the kill

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2004

TOKYO (AFP) — Animal welfare groups from around the world homed in on what they called the cruelty of whaling as they launched a major campaign calling for an outright ban.

The Whalewatch coalition, involving more than 140 organisations from 55 countries, is lobbying the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to stop not only commercial hunting but also "research" whaling.

It aims to bring the issue of cruelty, such as the use of explosive harpoons, back to the fore at the IWC's annual meeting in Italy, after recent arguments focused on whale populations.

However Japan, one of the traditional whaling nations along with Norway and Iceland, dismissed the campaign as "environmental imperialism".

British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough said...