WASHINGTON (April 20, 2000) ~The Humane Society of the
United States (HSUS), the nation’s largest animal protection
organization with more than seven million members and constituents, is
strongly criticizing the U.S. Coast Guard for injuring an animal rights
activist protesting gray whale hunts by the Makah Indian tribe in Neah
Bay, Washington.
Today, a protester on a jet-ski was run over by a U.S.
Coast Guard boat, rescued and flown to a local hospital with a shoulder
injury. The protester interrupted a hunt in progress preventing a
successful attack on a gray whale. The Coast Guard has imposed a fine up
to $250,000 and six years in prison for violating a 500-yard *exclusion
zone* around the hunters. The Coast Guard is providing protection for
the Makah during the hunts and has resorted to force to prevent
interference, including ramming protesters boats. According to reports,
another activist suffered minor injuries on Monday, April 17, after a
Coast Guard vessel rammed a protest boat. In addition, several activists
have already been arrested for violating the zone and their vessels
seized.
"While we recognize that the actions of the protester
violated the Coast Guard's exclusionary zone, the reaction of the Coast
Guard personnel was uncalled for," said Naomi Rose, Ph.D., marine mammal
scientist for The HSUS. "The Coast Guard has a duty to protect, not
endanger, lives."
Patricia Forkan, HSUS Executive Vice President, added,
“Neither the Makah whaling crew nor the protester were endangering human
lives. Has this situation become so politically divisive that people
would find it acceptable for the Coast Guard to add to the violence
instead of to diffuse it? To run over defenseless protesters?”
In a 1997 backroom deal with the Russian government, the
U.S. delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), under
orders from the Clinton/Gore Administration, secured to the Makah a
share of the Russian Chukotka natives’ IWC gray whale quota 20 whales
through 2004 with a maximum of five per year. The Makah have said that
five families may seek hunting permits this year, to take the maximum
number allowed under this arguably illegal arrangement.
The HSUS condemns the whale killing as a senseless,
inhumane tragedy that is a devastating loss in the name of “tradition.”
Makah representatives had sought for years to resume whale hunting, a
“right” they feel is guaranteed to them by a 1855 treaty with the United
States government.
The centuries-old tradition ended in the 1920s when
commercial whalers hunted the grays to near extinction. Attempts to
revive the ancient practice have divided the Makah leadership. Despite
the internal divide, Makah hunters killed its first whale in 70 years
last May. In recent years, gray whale stocks have rebounded, leading
federal officials to remove them from the Endangered Species List in
1994. Gray whale populations worldwide are estimated at more than
23,000.
However, in recent weeks, 30 gray whales have washed
ashore dead along their migration route on the North American Pacific
Coast. Last year during the gray whales’ migration the death toll was
273, according to reports. While scientists are unsure what is causing
the death of the whales, it is another indicator that the gray whale
should be protected and not subject to slaughter.
Source:
dano@rockisland.com
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