We Labour Members of the House of Commons pledge ourselves to continue to work for Animal Welfare.
Janet Anderson MP Rossendale & Darwin
Adrian Bailey MP West Bromwich West
Margaret M Beckett MP Derby South
Ann Begg MP Aberdeen South
Ben Bradshaw MP Exeter
Nick Brown MP Newcastle upon Tyne East & Wallsend
Martin Caton MP Gower
Ann Clwyd MP Cynon Valley
Vernon Coaker MP Gedling
Jim Cunningham MP Coventry South
Janet Dean MP Burton
Jim Dowd MP Lewisham West
David Drew MP Stroud
Jeff Ennis MP Barnsley East & Mexborough
Bill Etherington MP Sunderland North
Michael Jabez Foster MP Hastings & Rye
Nia Griffith MP Llanelli
Nigel Griffiths MP
Mike Hall MP Weaver Vale
David Heyes MP Ashton-under-Lyne & Norman Briggs
Kelvin Hopkins MP Luton North
Joan Humble MP Blackpool North & Fleetwood
Dr Brian Iddon MP Bolton South East
Brian Jenkins MP Tamworth
Diana Johnson MP Hull North
Ashok Kumar MP Middlesbrough & East Cleveland
David Lepper MP Brighton Pavilion
Robert Marshall-Andrews MP Medway
Eric Martlew MP Carlisle
Ian McCartney MP & Ann McCartney Makerfield
Alun Michael MP Cardiff South & Penarth
Andrew Miller MP Ellesmore Port & Neston
Julie Morgan MP Cardiff North
Laura Muffatt MP Crawley
Meg Munn MP Sheffield Healey
Bill Olner MP Nuneaton
Nick Palmer MP Broxtowe
Gwyn Prosser MP Dover & Deal
Jonathan Shaw MP Chatham & Aylesford
Dennis Skinner MP Bolsover
Angela Smith MP Basildon & East Thurrock
Dr Howard Stoate MP Dartford
Paddy Tipping MP Sherwood
Dr Desmond Turner MP Brighton Kemptown
Neil Turner MP Wigan
Betty Williams MP Conwy
Mike Wood MP Batley and Spen
While the campaign to ‘save the whales’ culminated in the historic agreement to indefinitely ban commercial whaling in 1986, sadly,
almost 40,000 whales have been slaughtered during the ban and 2013 will see this depressing statistic increase still more.
While Australia has dragged Japan to the International Court of Justice over it’s bogus ‘scientific’ whaling programmes in the
Antarctic and Pacific, most whaling is taking place uncomfortably much closer to home, and it is expanding pretty much unopposed.
Though Japan has resorted to subterfuge to continue whaling, Iceland and Norway have simply lodged ‘objections’ and continue to kill
whales with impunity. This year, Norway is targeting a record quota of 1,286 minke whales and has killed almost half that number so
far. In Iceland, despite the growing popularity of whale-watching, a quota of 100 minke and 150 endangered fin whales has been set.
Shockingly, much of the minke meat is eaten by foreign tourists while endangered fin whale meat is exported to Japan, some of it
destined to become dog food!
In the Faroe Islands over 500 pilot whales have been slaughtered in just 10 days. While the Faroese Government advocates limiting
consumption of the whales because they are contaminated with dangerous pollutants, the appetite for killing these intelligent, social
animals seems undiminished.
So what will reverse this appalling resurgence of whaling? While Australia has taken on Japan’s whaling, shamefully unsupported by
the UK and EU, whaling in our backyard is expanding mostly unchallenged. Shockingly, meat from the endangered fin whales killed in
Iceland has been found in transit at the ports of Southampton, Rotterdam and Hamburg even though the UK and EU have banned import of
whale products, support the whaling ban and a ban on international trade in these products.
So why is there no meaningful action taken against whaling when all the Nordic whaling countries depend on selling their fish catches
to the UK and the rest of Europe where public opposition to whaling is strongest? While the EU has decided to sanction both Iceland
and the Faroes over their unilateral setting of herring quotas, sadly there is no apparent interest in confronting whaling with
sanctions that could end it overnight.
This is why Campaign Whale is calling on the government, the EU and all retailers of seafood to stop supporting whaling. It is time to
fight back for the whales. For more information please visit www.campaign-whale.org, call 01273 471403 or email enquiries@campaign-
whale.org
STOP PRESS
On the 13th August two further whale hunts took place on the Faroe Islands. As a result, 450 white-sided dolphins and 136 pilot whales
were cruelly slaughtered with knives, a staggering total of 586 whales killed in just a single day! Over 1,000 whales have now been
killed in the Faroe Islands alone in just 24 days this summer.
With Norway setting record quotas of minke whales this year, and with Iceland killing over 100 minke and endangered fin whales,
only tough government action now can halt this horrifying slide back to the darkest days of whale slaughter.
