From: Tierra ~Abolition, Veganism, & Direct Action
Date: Jan 29, 2008 12:14 PM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Carmarthenshire Animal Action
Date: Jan 29, 2008 10:50 AM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Jade says Stop Animal Cruelty
Date: 29 Jan 2008, 14:32
† Jenny †
Whales have evolved as diving mammals, they have a continuous supply of blood to the brain even when other functions shut down. A whale may still be conscious when it is motionless, and appearing to be dead and breathing is undetectable. Whales can take several hours to die after grenade tipped harpoons shred their internal organs, the best they can hope for is to drown in their own blood, before they are tortured and cut up alive on the processing ship Nisshin Maru.
Once hauled up on ship, they are electrocuted, via another harpoon fired into the body that would shock the heart, even though the International Whaling Commission outlawed this in 2001.
Masayuki Komatsu, executive director of the Japan Fisheries Research Agency, said that standard harpoons, used to kill minke whales, could not ensure a swift death for larger whales, so they have invented a super harpoon.
"Because new species have been added to the research project this year (2006) which are larger than a minke whale, we thought we would need a bigger grenade on the end of the harpoon to ensure the killing is instantaneous,” he said.
The new weapon (super harpoon) uses a “warhead” redesigned to penetrate the thickest layers of skin, blubber and bone. The body of the harpoon has also been redesigned, using research from battlefield weapons, so that it shatters into sharper fragments.
“If the grenades that used to be fired missed the target they just prolonged the whale’s death, so this grenade is a far more humane method,” she said.
However, the environmental groups monitoring the fleet say that the harpoons do not always work as intended so the animals can take a long time to die.
Nowadays, whales that do not die immediately are supposed to be shot in the head with large-calibre rifles. However, according to Greenpeace campaigners who witnessed such incidents, some are dragged backwards until they drown.
Wounded whales are also dragged to the boat where they may be harpooned again with non-explosive harpoons (electrocuted) or Shot with rifles. Reports from recent Japanese and Norwegian whaling operations state that it took an average of 2.9 shots to kill each whale, and that it can take up to 9 shots and they are Stabbed with electric lances and electrocuted.
The following video is a response by AussieWhale to the slurs against anti whalers. Warning, very graphic detail.
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