FW: Special Message from Pierce Brosnan

[Guest guest]

 

Pierce Brosnan [5KBH0P9]

Wednesday, April 03, 2002 5:21 PM

wwdistlist

Special Message from Pierce Brosnan

 

 

If you are having problems viewing this email in html go to:

http://www.ifaw.org/pierce

 

<http://160.79.169.195/images/ifaw_pierce/top.jpg>

<http://160.79.169.195/images/ifaw_pierce/1pix_clear.gif>

<http://160.79.169.195/images/ifaw_pierce/title.gif>

<http://160.79.169.195/images/ifaw_pierce/1pix_clear.gif>

Dear IFAW Supporter,

 

 

I am urgently trying to reach as many concerned people as I can to seek your

help in the campaign to save the great whales. Over the past several weeks,

government officials in two countries have announced plans to hunt

endangered whales and reopen the banned trade in whale meat.

 

I need your help to stop this madness before it's too late. Please forward

this message to as many friends and contacts as you can. Then go to

<http://inv9.com/.l/5KBH032B7> www.ifaw.org/actionforwhales to learn what

else you can do to help.

 

Three decades ago, horrific images of industrial whaling operations first

inspired a global movement to protect these magnificent creatures. Men and

women of conscience across the planet joined together to end this cruel and

outmoded practice and rescue threatened whale species from the brink of

extinction. This global grass-roots effort achieved an important victory

when, in 1986, a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling came into

effect.

 

Since that time, millions of people around the world -- from schoolchildren

to senior citizens -- have come to learn more about our neighbors from the

deep. We've learned that whales are intelligent animals with close-knit

family groups, that many are highly migratory, regularly traversing the

depth and breadth of our ocean planet, that whales are social creatures,

communicating across great distances with unique songs, clicks and calls,

and that new threats such as pollution, ship strikes, entanglement in

fishing nets, acoustic disturbance and loss of vital ocean habitat threaten

their very survival.

 

Incredibly, at the dawn of the 21st century, government bureaucrats in two

countries, Japan and Norway, want to return to full-scale commercial

whaling. They are finalizing plans to kill more than 1,200 whales this year.

Norway, which has long objected to the IWC moratorium, will kill more than

600 minke whales in the North Atlantic. Japan, which uses a scientific

loophole to claim its whaling is for scientific research, will this year

kill hundreds of endangered Pacific minke, sei, Bryde's and sperm whales.

Once they are butchered and boxed up for shipment, these whales will make

their way to market where choice cuts will be sold as delicacies.

 

How can you help? Go to <http://inv9.com/.l/5KBH032B7>

www.ifaw.org/actionforwhales

 

Unfortunately a minority of government officials in Japan tries to cast the

whaling issue in nationalist terms, claiming that those who would protect

the whales are somehow " anti-Japan. " These pro-whaling bureaucrats are

clearly out of step with the majority of the Japanese people. Polls in Japan

show support for whaling is dwindling among the mainstream public. Whaling

is vocally opposed by leading Japanese environmental groups, and scientists

have issued repeated warnings that whale meat is contaminated with high

levels of marine pollutants and unsafe for human consumption.

 

Much of Japan's whale hunting is conducted around Antarctica in the waters

of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Japan, the lone nation to vote against this

internationally recognized sanctuary when it was established, will this year

again sail its whaling ships into the sanctuary and kill hundreds of

protected whales. Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Fisheries Agency bureaucrats are

working diligently to revive the international trade in whale meat. Just

last month, they announced Japan would defy an 11-year-old global ban and

begin importing whale meat -- 100 tons of it per year -- from . . . you

guessed it: Norway.

 

It is time for our generation to do its part. These audacious moves by

Japanese and Norwegian bureaucrats threaten more than thirty years of hard

won protections for whales. They must be stopped.

 

Here's what you can do: Go to <http://inv9.com/.l/5KBH032B7>

www.ifaw.org/actionforwhales

 

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), one of the leading global

conservation groups fighting to protect marine mammals and their habitats,

has established this website to help people like you and me take immediate

action to save the whales and learn more about what we all can do to help.

 

I have worked very closely with IFAW for the past several years. Together we

have spoken out and achieved important victories for whales around the

world. And I am proud to join IFAW once again in this critical effort to

protect these majestic creatures.

 

The Governments of Japan and Norway need to hear our voices now. It's time

to save the whales again! Please help protect these endangered animals for

future generations.

 

Thank you for your kind attention and support. If we all stand together we

can turn the tide.

 

Sincerely,

 

<http://160.79.169.195/images/ifaw_pierce/SWN_pierce_sign.gif>

 

Pierce Brosnan

 

P.S. Please also forward this message to as many people as you can to help

us spread the word about this global campaign! Thanks again! --PB

 

<http://160.79.169.195/images/ifaw_pierce/pierce.jpg>

 

<http://inv9.com/.l/5KBH032B7>

 

 

 

 

 

<http://inv9.com/.i/5KBH0P9>