After years of targeting the governments involved in whaling,
this year we launched a new campaign to target corporate
involvement in whale slaughter, including Gorton's of Gloucester
right here in the U.S.
More than 25,000 of you wrote to Gorton's, sent postcards,
attended whale watching parties, folded origami whales, and made
generous contributions, all to send Gorton's a clear message: Get
out of the whale killing business. Well, in less than 4 short
months, you've managed to get the largest corporate shareholder in
commercial whaling to agree to get out of the whaling business
altogether.
And that's not all… the rest of the corporate shareholders in
the Japanese whaling fleet have also decided to divest their shares
of the business rather than face your wrath. This doesn't mean an
end to so-called "scientific" whaling, but it does mean that public
pressure is gaining momentum and forcing corporations to jump
ship.
This is the most important victory since commercial whaling was
officially banned in 1986. You have so much to be proud of. But the
fight is far from over, and now we're gearing up for what could be
the greatest threat yet.
The next meeting of the International Whaling Commission will be
taking place in June, and Japan is threatening to win the majority
vote and overturn the commercial whaling moratorium. For years, the
Japanese government has spent billions of Yen buying votes on the
commission, and this year could be the critical year that they
manage to turn the tide. Our own government will have a critical
role to play, and we expect a lot more from them than we've seen
lately if we're going to prevent this from happening. So stay tuned
for the next round.
Many Thanks to You
This is a tremendous step toward an end to whaling, and we
couldn't have accomplished it without the thousands of supporters
who took the time to make a difference. Thank you.
The fight to protect whales is far from over though, so please
keep fighting along with us.
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Support Us >> June is just around the corner,
so if you want to help give us a head-start, feel free to make a
whale of a donation here.