Join the mass online protest against whaling in the Southern Ocean

By Deb Baxter -The Body Shop

Create your own electronic whale out of virtual origami paper, and send it "swimming" with a personal message to the Prime Minister of Japan.

In just over a month, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Chile. Japan will be pushing hard for approval to resume full-scale commercial whaling. Greenpeace will be delivering all the origami whales to the Japanese embassy in Canberra, highlighting them in the media, and showing them to IWC delegates in Chile. Meanwhile, Greenpeace has released explosive evidence of corruption in the whaling program - where whale meat is being stolen and sold on the black market. The scandal - resulting from a 3-month undercover investigation by Greenpeace - has made the front pages of newspapers across Japan and brought the entire whaling program into further disrepute. Increasingly, the Japanese public is concerned about their taxes subsidising an aging whaling fleet conducting fake science to justify a hunt for whale meat few want to eat. Now is the moment to increase the swell of international outrage about whaling with "Origami whales" and bring Japan into the fold! Click to make your origami whale today!

Is Supre Profiteering On Whaling?

Photo of the 'Whale Sucks' t-shirts on sale outside Supre's Bourke St Store in Melbourne.

I'm not sure about this one. Maybe I'm being overly critical so I thought I'd poll you about it (have your say to the right before you read any further). Do you think Supre is cashing in on the anti-whaling campaign or helping to create awareness with their massive teen audience?

We've been retail activists for a long time so maybe we're just more experienced at it? I do want to congratulate Supre if this is about their passion for social and environmental change not profits! Here's what I think the 'campaign' is missing:

• "Whaling sucks!" and so does working in a sweatshop... Supre hasn't signed up to the Home Worker's Code of Practice . The code ensures that workers will be paid minimum wage.
• There aren't any facts about the campaign - reasons why "whaling sucks"
  
• There are no action suggestions for customers or even links to anti-whaling organisations like Greenpeace or Sea Shepard in their stores or online.
  
• They seem to be keeping all the profits and so buying the t-shirt isn't directly helping the whales or the organisations trying to protect them.
  

But I'll let you decide if, overall, you think their involvement in the anti-whaling campaign is positive or negative. Vote in the poll or leave a comment.

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

A Dingo Took Our Moral High Ground

Ok, sometimes it's uncomfortable to have a mirror held up to you. You don't like what you see. This happened to me today when I watched the above video (9:56mins) released by the pro-whaling movement in Japan. Although I think the way they've gone about this is totally wrong not to mention downright misleading at times. It made me wonder in a Carrie Bradshaw fashion...

Did a dingo take our moral high ground?

RACISTS?
Some of the accusations the video makes are true. The White Australia policy describe a collection of historical legislation and policies which intentionally restricted non-white immigration to Australia from 1901 to 1973. - Wiki

INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS?
Our treatment of first Australians is maybe even more disgraceful. Indigenous Australians didn't have the right to vote until Commonwealth legislation in 1962. We didn't acknowledge their right to native title of land until 1990! Our federal government has promised to say 'sorry' for a whole generation of children stolen from their families this year! - Wiki

DINGOS?
The video does reveal a disturbing truth about Dingos that I don't think many of us (including yours truly) are aware of. I was ready to disbelieve everything, so, when they claimed Dingos are in the same World Conservation Union (ICUN) status as Humpback whales... I had to investigate. Sadly it's true! In 2004 the ICUN gave Dingos 'Vulnerable' status. However, the video fails to mention that although hunting and killing them as pests is abhorrent, it's not the main reason why they're population size is vulnerable. Both the ICU and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Dingo Policy Statement site interbreeding with wild or domestic dogs as being the major threat to their species.

KANGAROOS?
I'm sure the vast majority of people that use or eat animal products don't wish for that animal to have suffered in death. Those images of joeys being killed - make me sick. They are barbaric and awful. However I've heard that eating kangaroo meat is much more sustainable compared to other livestock. According to this Burke's Backyard Fact Sheet on Kangaroo Meat,(I know) Tim Flannery (then) biological scientist at the Australian Museum says:

• It costs the Australian environment nothing to produce kangaroo meat. In comparison, seven kilograms of soil are used to produce one kilogram of wheat.
• Farming wild animals is less cruel than raising domesticated animals for meat. Kangaroos do not suffer the stress of live trucking and abattoirs. Instead they live freely in the wild until they are killed instantly by professional shooters.

WHALES?
Australia stopped whaling in 1979. Japan continues to whale for commercial use despite an international ban. I've never tasted it but the Japanese girl towards the end of the video looked like she was trying hard not to spit her whale out (didn't she realise she was on a pro-whaling commercial?).

MEDIA?
This video made me consider how we treat animals in Australia. We see whales being harpooned but kangaroos (and all other animals we eat) happily cruising around. Why? We don't like holding up the mirror do we? Are our killing methods humane?

I just wish the Japanese would understand that it's not just Australia but the entire global community's wish to protect whales from extinction.

I'd like to give a big shout out to the activists on the high seas working or volunteering for Greenpeace and the Sea Shepards. Stay safe! I hope you put aside your differences and support each other out there to defeat a common enemy.

Take Action: The ACF is concerned that in most States/Territories, the dingo is classified as a noxious animal, pest or vermin species and that this status requires its destruction. Write to your State Government to get this changed!

Adam Valvasori - Not a Sex in The City fan

Sounds Fishy!

Photo: Rebecca Hallas / The Age

The Body Shop would like to join the RSPCA and Animal Liberation in condemning the Ipond (pictured above). According to this article in The Age it's 15 times smaller than the recommended tank size for the fish it contains. The RSPCA has called on the device to be banned because it is too small to provide fish with adequate oxygen supplies and a clean environment.

RSPCA spokesman Hugh Wirth said despite the fighting fish's ability to breathe air from the surface, the tank was far too small for it to receive adequate oxygen. The small volume of water would lead to rapid temperature change and this meant the tropical fish would not live long, he said.

It looks like they have no room to turn around in and to complete the perfect torture box the sound reverberating into the tank would totally stress them out! So, please don't buy one!

Also, if you have two minutes can I suggest signing the Greenpeace & NineMSN Save the Whales petition, which is now over 50,000 people strong.

In case you missed it, you might want to read my rant about the Japanese "whale research with extreme prejudice" post, or watch an interview with the Greenpeace spokesperson for the campaign.

A tip for petition makers and amateur campaigners playing at home: When creating a petition, ask for people's postcode, it will help you sort your petition into electorates thus making it more potent in the political arena.

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Japanese whalers hunt humpbacks

A humpback whale off Port Macquarie, NSW. Photo: iansand

We (humans!!!) decimated the population of whales including humpback whales during the late 1950s and early 1960s to the very brink of extinction.

Some of the nicer humans amongst us took an issue with this and campaigned like crazy to "save the whales". Anita Roddick was one of them. She founded The Body Shop in 1976 and the very next year threw herself into Greenpeace's anti-whaling campaign.

Until now this campaign has been a real success story, proving we can make a difference and turn things around. Only a few countries in the world condone commercial whaling anymore.

As a result, the Humpback population in eastern Australia has slowly crept back up. The current population migrating along our east coast was estimated to be 7,024 in 2005 and increasing at approximately 10-11% per annum and is likely to be around 9,500 individuals in 2007 according to the Southern Cross University Whale Research Centre. Note: the current classification by the World Conservation Union is still 'vulnerable'.

That's why I was furious to discover a Japanese whaling fleet has set sail in defiance of international condemnation with plans to bag and tag the biggest catch of minke and humpback whales since the 1960s. All in the name of "research" - yeah right!

The Japanese Government's position on whaling argues that there are plenty of whales now and they are eating all our fish! That's right, it's the whales that illegally caught and ate $6 billion worth of Southern Bluefin Tuna in the last 20 years... not Japanese fishing vessels. (I hope you're hearing my sarcasm here)

The weird thing is, according to this survey in 1999, the last time 61 percent of Japanese people ate whale meat, (if ever) was when they were children. Only one percent of them answered that they eat whale meat about once a month. No one answered that he/she eats whale meat more frequently than once a month.

According to the traveler that took this photo, (right) these are half price "whale hamburgers" in a Japanese supermarket. The sign says that the meat has been flavoured so that it is reminiscent of hamburgers - more palatable to the kids. Whale meat tastes a bit like beef but it has a strong aftertaste that might not be popular with children.

So, yes it's a part of their cultural history, but most of them don't even like eating it anymore! Can anyone make sense of why they are so hardcore about "researching" so many of them?

What you can do:

• Join Greenpeace's Great Whale Trail to track Humpbacks off our east coast.
  
• Join and support with gusto an anti-whaling, campaign organisation like Greenpeace or Sea Shepard
• Email the Japanese Embassy in Canberra cultural@japan.org.au
• Phone, write or visit your local Japanese Consulate
  

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager