Just because we can't hear them scream doesn't make this right...

The New Zealand Department of Conservation writes:

Despite a moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986, and two ocean sanctuaries to further protect whales, only a few whale populations are increasing. Slow reproductive rates and new environmental threats affect the ability of whales to recover, even in the absence of any whaling activities.

The BBC in a report on the recent International Whaling Commission's annual meeting notes that:

Currently, Japan and Iceland kill whales under an IWC ruling which allows nations to catch whales for "scientific research".

Norway, which formally objected to the 1986 ban, openly conducts commercial whaling.

The Sun gets to the heart of the matter from my point of view...

And The Sun has obtained harrowing undercover footage which proves that whales suffer a torturous and lingering death when they have been harpooned.

The images, filmed by the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Environmental Investigation Agency, show a Norwegian ship firing a grenade-tipped harpoon into a minke whale.

The whale takes two-and-a-half agonising minutes to die. Others can take more than AN HOUR.

Even the Norwegians admit that around 20 per cent of whales fail to be killed straight away. Japan has reported that almost 60 per cent are not killed outright.

I'm realistic enough to believe that we probably can't stop all whaling but the barbarity with which it is undertaken is stomach turning.

David Attenborough is quoted as saying:

“And there is hard, scientific, dispassionate evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale at sea. Dr Harry Lillie, who worked as a ship’s physician on a whaling trip in the Antarctic half a century ago, wrote this:

“ ‘If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck in its stomach and being made to pull a butcher’s truck through the streets of London while it pours blood into the gutter, we shall have an idea of the method of killing. The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream the industry would stop, for nobody would be able to stand it.’

“Harpoons with explosive grenade heads are still the main technique used to kill whales today.”

Shane Rattenbury, of Greenpeace’s ocean’s campaign, goes on to describe the cruelty he witnessed at first hand:

“We saw how long it took for the whales to die.

“The worst example I saw was when a whale was struck three times. The time between being struck with the harpoon and ceasing to struggle to fight was 35 minutes.

“We also saw the whales being asphyxiated. This hasn’t been documented before.

“When they have harpooned the whale, they tie it to the side of the catcher ship and take it to the factory ship.

“They were being hung up by their tails with their heads under water so they couldn’t breath. That’s how they were dying. The whale normally breathes from the top of the head.

“You could see the whale tail flapping as it was being carried along — which is not the promised quick death from a harpoon.

“The Japanese claim these are scientific hunts. But no scientist could support such unsophisticated deaths. It is appalling. None of us had prepared ourselves for something like that.”

Call me a liberal, tea-smoking, hippy if you like but this isn't about the killing. It's about cruelty and a lack of respect for life.

Tags: Whaling, Greenpeace, Animal Cruelty, Animal Rights