Whales and dolphins in Japanese pet food
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.
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.”
Dried dog food
The analysis was carried out by Frank
Cipriano, a professor at San Francisco State University, on samples of pet food
purchased by the EIA in February from supermarkets in Shizuoka and Otsuchi, near
Tokyo. DNA analysis showed that dried dog food from Shizuoka contained Antarctic
minke and a packaged dog food product purchased in Otsuchi contained dolphin
DNA. Japan allows the hunting of up to 700 whales a year for what it claims is
scientific research, although opponents claim it is a pretext for commercial
whaling.
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