Media Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May, 2007

JAPAN’S GLUT OF WHALE MEAT – AND NO ONE WANTS IT!

• 1,035 tons of whale meat are in the markets of Japan– a 65% increase from 1995.

• Japan is sitting on an additional 2,700 tons of unwanted whale meat. The infamous Taiji dolphin slaughter also produces much meat that is labeled "whale" meat for consumption.

• The supply far exceeds the demand. Whale burgers and whale meatballs are appearing on school menus and canned whale meat is reportedly being distributed to old people’s homes.

• Prices of whale meat have dropped so much, that in a desperate attempt to get rid of this glut, the Japanese are now selling whale meat for pet food.

• The Japanese are feeding whale meat essentially to those who have no say in what they eat.

• A recent analysis of whale meat samples purchased in Japanese markets turned up dangerous levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), including some chemicals that act as estrogen imitators, elevating estrogen levels in women, "feminizing" men and lowering sperm counts.

• Dolphins and whales killed and sold for food in Japan have levels of mercury and organochlorines which are hundreds of times higher than what is considered safe for human consumption.

Not only are Japanese marketers of this meat conducting a slaughter that is appalling to the majority of humanity, they are poisoning their own people as well.

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