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http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=228019 Ito fishermen propose 'humane' slaughter of dolphins
Wednesday, August 28, 2002 at 09:30 JST SHIZUOKA ? To counter criticism of animal rights advocates, fishermen in Ito, a traditional dolphin-hunting town in eastern Izu, have proposed what they portray as a more humane dolphin-slaughtering practice ? shortening the time of death from up to 10 minutes to within 30 seconds.
According to the Ito municipal fishing cooperative, the coastal dolphin hunters in Ito traditionally kill their catches after taking them to the slaughterhouse at dockside.
Fishermen say a dolphin usually takes 5 to 10 minutes to die at the slaughterhouse, where fishermen use huge knives to cut open a dolphin.
The alternative proposed by the Ito fishing cooperative is to lift dolphins cornered by fishermen halfway above the water and kill them by severing their spinal chord with a knife. A dolphin would die within 30 seconds, fishermen said.
The alternative slaughtering method, to be carried out from September, has failed to convince the critics.
Officials at Dolphin and Whale Action Network, a Tokyo-based animal conservation group, dismissed the Ito proposal as irrelevant and urged dolphin hunters in Ito, which is better known in Japan as a spa resort, to stop hunting coastal dolphins.
'Dolphin catching is not a key industry to the local people,' a Dolphin and Whale Action Network official said, adding that dolphins have largely disappeared from Izu coastal waters.
The catching of dolphin in Japan is controlled by the government. For the current fiscal year, the fishermen in Izu and elsewhere in Shizuoka Prefecture are allowed to catch up to 600 dolphins.
Local fishermen say they have not caught any dolphin since 75 dolphins were captured in 1999. (Kyodo News)
