Petition Against Dolphin Slaughter in Japan
Netlore Archive: How NOT to save the dolphins - or porpoises, for that matter...
Description: Email petition
Circulating since: Oct. 2000
Status: Useless
Analysis: See below
Email example contributed by E. Bassett, 9 Dec 2000:
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SLAUGHTER OF 17,000 DOLPHINS READY TO BEGIN ! Fishermen in central Japan are set to begin hunting dolphins, an annual event which comes around every autumn. This year, however, the activity might trigger controversy after the recent international outcry over Japan's whaling programme. The dolphin hunting season officially got under way on Sunday in the small port town of Taiji - the traditional home of Japanese whaling - some 450km southwest of Tokyo. Poor weather has prevented fishermen from going out to sea so far, but they plan to catch a total of nearly 2 400 dolphins and smaller species of whales during the season, which runs until the end of April, a local official said. Both whaling and dolphin hunting are traditions that date back hundreds of years in Japanese society. But unlike Japan's whaling programme, which Tokyo says is for scientific research purposes, dolphins are hunted purely to provide meat for consumption, a Fisheries Agency official said. The hunt was being carried out in accordance with International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules, according to the Fisheries Agency official, adding that strict quotas were set each year. In addition to Taiji, dolphin hunting is allowed at several other ports and a total of nearly 17 000 dolphins are caught every season. If you feel strongly enough about this, please : If you find that your name is at number 100, please forward the entire petition to the following address (si vous etes le no 100, merci d'envoyer la petition complete a l'adresse suivante) : stoptheslaughter@hotmail.com Every time I receive 100 names I will forward them to various organisations such as Green Peace in order to help them in their fight against this sort of atrocity. Thanks for your concern ! |
Comments: Every year, according to environmental groups, Japanese fisherman hunt and kill tens of thousands of dolphins and porpoises and sell the meat locally as food. Though the animals aren't considered an endangered species, some animal rights groups oppose the hunt, which is why this email petition is circulating.
Regardless of how you feel about porpoises and dolphins, however, I don't advise signing it. Why not? Because the email address to which completed copies are to be sent no longer exists. All mail sent to stoptheslaughter@hotmail.com is returned undeliverable. Email petitions generally have a bad track record for palpable results.
If you're concerned and would like to find more contructive ways to get involved, try contacting organizations like Greenpeace, Earthtrust or the Environmental Investigation Agency. If you want to inform others about the issue, send them a personal message and/or the URL of a legitimate Website so they know the information they're getting is reliable.
But as for the petition ... just delete it. It's useless.
About email petitions:
Do Email Petitions Work?
From Salon magazineThe Case of the Pointless Petition
How email petitions can go wrong
