To: Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto,
Prime Minister of Japan,
Fax: +81-3-5511-8855
email address: jpm@kantei.go.jpcc: Mr. Michio Ahimada, Director of the National Fishery Agency
Date:
Fax: +81 3-3502-0794Dear Prime Minister Hashimoto,
I am writing to you for the second time to again request, as a matter of the greatest urgency, that you invesigate and order the immediate release of the orca whales taken into captivity at Taiji.
Nobody has the right to do what the people who captured these whales did. Cruelty, whether to humans or non-humans, is absolute; it is not one thing in one culture and another thing in another culture. That animals suffer is a cold, hard, scientific fact; pain, anxiety Ñ many of the things that constitute ÒsufferingÓ are measurable by science.
On 14th June, one of the male orcas in Adventure World died. He was the youngest among the Taiji Five and the one that was making a crying sound in a video recorded earlier. Three days later, on the morning of June 17, the female orca in Shirahama Adventure World died. She had been pregnant and had miscarriage in April. She had been refusing to eat fish so that she became weak and could not even float by herself. The aquarium staff decreased the water in the tank to half. And at the end, she was held up by a canvas sling.
These were unnecessary deaths! They were wild creatures destined to live out their lives, free, in the oceans of our world. Yet they suffered. To cause suffering gratuitously, for economic greed (or worse yet, for pleasure) rather than for survival is cruelty, regardless of the culture in which it occurs.
The size of the Japanese Orca population is unknown but probably very small. Destroying these orcas will have a dramatic effect on their pods. Even the demise of one orca family could cause great harm to the population. Orcas live long lives, reproduce slowly and endure high infant mortality. Acoustic and cultural traditions exist within Orca families and find various forms of expression in orca populations around the world. Little is known of these traditions in orcas, but they certainly exist.
It is now impossible for Japanese or international observers to get any information on the fate of the remaining three orcas. Their tiny tanks are barred from public view or access and no information is forthcoming from the aquarium or your government. The condition of the remaining three orcas as they suffer loss of their family group, starvation, sensory deprivation and paralysis caused by lack of movement must be dreadful.
The eyes of the world are again on Japan. Your intervention is required. I implore you to order the immediate release of the whales. By so doing, you will gain respect from around the world. What we do now will mean everything in the future.
Yours Sincerely,