Whales and dolphin meat in Japanese pet food

This is really hard to believe. How can Japan justify its continued slaughter of whales if they don't even have enough demand in their population for the meat.

Read this story from AllAboutFeed.net

Whale and dolphin meat is being sold in pet food in Japan, thus negating Tokyo's controversial claim that it needs more whale meat, according to three environmental groups.

They said analysis carried out earlier this year on samples of pet food purchased near Tokyo revealed levels of both Antarctic minke whale and dolphin meat. "The fact that Japan is using whale meat for pet foods totally invalidates Japan's attempts to legitimise and increase their catches," said Clare Perry, of the British non-governmental Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

The EIA issued its statement in conjunction with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and the Humane Society of the United States on the margins of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting in Berlin. Sue Fisher of the WDCS said: "We hear the same rhetoric year after year about distressed coastal whaling communities, and now we find that whales are being used as pet food."

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Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2007-03-03