Norway hits cruelty to fish but not whales
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:
OSLO–The Norwegian Food Safety
Auth-ority on July 27, 2004 “revealed rampant
violations of animal protection laws after an
inspection of a plant that stores live wild cod.
The NFSA says fish are being tortured,” wrote
Frodis Braathen and Jonathan Tisdall of
Aftenposten.
The crackdown on cruelty to fish came
three days after Norway and Japan failed once
again to lift the global moratorium on commercial
whaling in effect since 1986.
Norway has permitted coastal whaling
since 1994 in defiance of the moratorium, but
has not been able to develop the commerce in
whale meat to Japan that was expected to make
whaling profitable.
Before the annual meeting of the
International Whaling Commission, held this year
in Sorrento, Italy, the Norwegian parliament
considered raising the self-set national minke
whale quota to 1,800, from 655, before settling
on 745.
After the IWC meeting, when Norwegian
whalers had killed only 543 whales at season’s
end in early August, the season was extended
into September-but the pro-whaling High North
Alliance told Agence France-Presse that
Norweg-ian whalers had already “stored away their
harpoons weeks agoĊ due to dwindling demand” for
whale meat
