[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 118 (Wednesday, September 20, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S9781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CONDEMNING DRIVE HUNTS

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the inhumane 
and unnecessary annual slaughter of small cetaceans, including Dall's 
porpoise, the bottlenose dolphin, Risso's dolphin, false killer whales, 
pilot whales, the striped dolphin, and the spotted dolphin, by Japan's 
drive fishery.
  Drive hunts are run by fishers who use scare tactics to herd, chase, 
and corral the animals into shallow waters where they are trapped and 
then killed or hauled off live to be sold into captivity. The 
overexploitation of these highly social and intelligent animals for 
decades has resulted in the serious decline, and in some cases, the 
commercial extinction, of these species.
  On April 7, 2005, I introduced Senate Resolution 99 to help end this 
inhumane and unnecessary practice and urged participating countries to 
stop the brutal treatment of these animals. Fishers have killed small 
cetaceans along the coastlines of Japan for centuries with no regard 
for the humaneness or sustainability of the hunt. Currently, up to 
20,000 small cetaceans of several species are killed in Japanese drive 
and harpoon hunts each year. In the last two decades, more than 400,000 
have been slaughtered in Japan alone.
  The cruelty endured by dolphins and whales caught in drive hunts is 
immense. Aboard motorized boats, drive hunt fishers loudly bang metal 
pipes over the side of their boats to disorient the animals and drive 
them toward shore where they are trapped by nets and stabbed with long 
knives, usually just behind the blowhole or across the throat. Many of 
the animals eventually die from blood loss and hemorrhagic shock or 
their spinal cord is severed.
  Today, the Humane Society of the United States/Humane Society 
International, Animal Welfare Institute, and Whale and Dolphin 
Conservation Society are joining with concerned citizens throughout 
this country and around the world to gather in peaceful demonstrations 
to express their concern for the welfare of these animals. I, too, join 
them in condemning these brutal and senseless hunts.

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