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target whale.
Given the constantly moving environment in which whales live and are hunted, there are inherent difficulties in achieving a quick clean kill, the coalition points out. The harpoon often fails to kill its victim right away and some whales take over an hour to die.
Norway reported that one in five whales failed to die instantaneously during its 2002 hunt, while Japan reported that the majority of whales, almost 60 percent failed to die instantaneously in its 2002-3 hunt.
Current tests to determine the moment of death in a whale are inadequate. The question remains whether whales may in fact still be alive long after having been judged to be dead. The full extent of their suffering is yet to be scientifically evaluated.
The IWC criteria for determining the time to death in hunted cetaceans are - relaxation of the lower jaw, or no flipper movement, or sinking without active movement.
For the coalition's report these criteria were reviewed by a group of scientists and veterinarians with expertise in welfare, physiology, and anatomy, who concluded that they were not adequate to determine precisely the point of death.
"Cetaceans are adapted for diving, and consequently have developed mechanisms for storing oxygen in their tissues. Thus they may survive, but have the potential to experience pain over a longer period than indicated by the current IWC criteria," the report states.
The failure to land whales that are struck and injured by whaling operations is "a severe welfare problem," the coalition believes. Struck and lost cetaceans may live on after their injuries, which may lead to infection, restricted mobility, and shattered joints or central nervous system damage. They may suffer an inability to feed, socialize or reproduce.
Whaling operations can impose physical and psychological stress upon a pursued cetacean before any killing method is deployed, the report points out. And in addition, the killing of one whale from a social group may have a significant effect on others because these animals live in a complex social system.
The methods used for killing highly evolved cetaceans are not even as humane as the methods used for killing livestock, the authors make clear.
Basic principles that must be addressed to protect the welfare of animals at slaughter have been identified for livestock animals, the report states, are, "pre-slaughter handling facilities which minimize stress; use of competent well-trained, caring personnel; appropriate equipment, which is fit for the purpose; an effective process which induces immediate unconsciousness and insensibility, or an induction to a period of unconsciousness without distress; and, guarantee of non-recovery from that process until death ensues."
None of these criteria are observed during a whale hunt.
Whaling nations have sometimes claimed that they are treated unfairly because people appear to value whales more highly than other animals such as farm animals. But this "value debate is not fundamental to the requirement of whales to be treated humanely," the report says, since their slaughter does not meet the basic standards required for slaughter of livestock killed for food.
The coalition objects to the lack of regulation to protect the welfare of whales within the IWC. "There are no regulations designed to 'avoid excitement, pain or suffering', no maximum pursuit times, no limit on the number of weapons or bullets that can be used on one animal, no upper limit on the acceptable time to death, no specific requirement for the rate of instantaneous kills, and, in many hunts, there is no limit on the number of animals that can be struck and lost."
Scientific or research permit proposals are not subject to an independent ethical review process.
For all these reasons, the coalition says modern whaling arouses "serious animal welfare concerns." A number of fac
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