Stop whaling

Was sent this letter with a request for relay.

The message below is a letter from stopwhaling.org urging concerned animal lovers like you to come to the rescue of the whales - over thirty thousand of which have been cruelly killed by whalers since an international ban on whaling in 1986. Please join me in sending this letter.

I am writing to express my grave concern over True World Foods' recent decision to partner with Kyokuyo Co., Ltd., a major distributor and retailer of whale meat products in Japan and a company with a nearly 70-year history in commercial whale hunting.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has documented Kyokuyo brand whale meat cans on sale in leading supermarket and convenience store chains across Japan for many years. Kyokuyo brand whale meat can now be purchased on the Internet and new whale products have been developed as recently as autumn 2006.

Kyokuyo's sale of whale meat fuels the continuation and advancement of whaling by Japan, which violates the worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling. The moratorium on commercial whaling was implemented in 1986 after decades of over-hunting severely depleted most of the great whale populations. Kyokuyo sells meat from whales killed in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, which was established in 1994 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to ensure a safe haven for whales in their feeding grounds. The hunt in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary now includes endangered fin whales and will include humpback whales beginning in 2007. These great whales are also protected from trade by the U.N.-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

In addition to selling whale meat, Kyokuyo has a long and unfortunate history of association with whaling. Until last year, Kyokuyo held 31.9% of the shares in Kyodo Senpaku - Japan's whaling fleet company. Kyodo Senpaku was set up by Kyokuyo, the Japanese government and other whaling interests in order to continue whaling after the international ban.

As an international company operating in countries across the globe, Kyokuyo has a responsibility of good corporate governance to pay due attention to multilateral environmental agreements and must increasingly answer to its international constituency. In the U.S. and Europe, where Kyokuyo is experiencing rapid expansion, Kyokuyo's customers are likely to have strong feelings about the company's continued involvement in commercial whaling.

I urge True World Foods to take immediate action to persuade Kyokuyo to permanently cease the production, distribution and sale of all whale products, thereby supporting the global moratorium on commercial whaling.

Please join me in speaking out now. To send this letter, visit stopwhaling.org today!

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