Animal Defenders of Westchester

lion baby

Home Page
Action Alerts
Articles
Campaigns
Events
Event Photos
How Can I Help?
Letters
Press Releases
Rodeo and Hunting Fan Mail
ADOW's TV Show
Who We Are
Become a Member
Companion Animal Memorials
Links

We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

Articles

"Hudson River swim protests killing of dolphins"

Local activists take on mass slaughter of wildlife in Japan

THE JOURNAL NEWS - 18 Sep 2006
By Mary Iarocci

YONKERS - Taffy Williams of Yonkers founded the New York Whale and Dolphin Action League because there was 'something unique' about the creatures.

Yesterday, Williams organized the Festival and Swim to Save Dolphins, a .93 mile swim across the Hudson River ending at the Beczak Environmental Education Center on the Yonkers waterfront, "because America and all the world loves dolphins."

"They help us out there on the water and they're in trouble.  We have to help them," Williams said.

Williams is protesting "dolphin drives," a process in which fisherman go out on boats and use loud sound of banging metal to frighten dolphins into a bay so that they can be captured or killed.

William Rossiter of the Cetacean Society International said the dolphins are panicked as they wait in the harbor, sometimes for several days, before they are squeezed together as a long net pushes them into shallow water.

Some are captured and selected for captivity.  The others are slaughtered by men who wade out with long stakes with knives on the ends to stab them to death, he said.  

"I don't think people know what really goes on, and it's just the most brutal thing," said Kiley Blackman of the Animal Defenders of Westchester.  "All they see is the frozen smiles on the dolphins at the aquarium.  

"They are stolen from their families, and they scream and cry for their babies."

Aaron Welt of Chappaqua, who was first to finish the Hudson River swim, said the Yonkers Canoe Club kayakers acted like coaches as they glided him to shore.

"Wildlife is important, and by being here I'm mixing activism and exercise," Welt said.

Rossiter said thousands of dolphins are killed every year in Japan, the largest slaughterer of dolphins in the world.

"The Japanese have gotten very good at restricting media coverage of these inhumane practices," he said.  "They don't want to lose face."

He said some dolphins are captured and sold, while others are used for school lunch programs and hospital food. Rossiter added that he would like people to be educated about food safety and "cause them to pause and choose something else."

Williams said she will participate in Japan Dolphin Day, an annual international protest against Japanese drive fisheries, at the Japanese Consulate in New York City at noon Wednesday.

"It's a very inhumane practice, but it's not immoral or unethical in Japanese culture," Rossiter said.  "In Japan, this is a matter of efficiency.  In their minds, there's nothing wrong with that."


Fair Use Notice: This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Your comments and inquiries are welcome


This site is hosted and maintained by:
The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation
Thank you for visiting all-creatures.org.


Since date.gif (991 bytes)