ALV’s Day of Action for the Whales on January 3, 2008, was a massive success. Around 250 compassionate people turned up outside the Japanese Consulate to voice their outrage against the slaughter of whales happening right now in Australian waters. In front of a crowd of media a giant Japanese flag was unfurled with a protester lying in a pool of blood replacing the rising sun. The purpose of this was to symbolise the hundreds of whales being killed by the Japanese. The protest achieved phenomenal media coverage, and the message that whaling is a cruel and senseless atrocity has reached literally tens of millions of people around the world (see below for sample of media coverage).
During the protest a gong was struck 985 times to represent the number of whales to be slaughtered this summer. The day of action finished with hundreds of people signing the bloodied Japanese flag, which is to be presented to the Japanese government in protest against the killing. The protest was also held in support of the crew of the Sea Shepherd anti whaling vessel, who are heroically putting their lives on the line to defend the whales and attempt to shut down the whale slaughter boat, which has been dubbed the ‘cetacean death star’.
‘BLOODY SENSELESS MURDER’ Protest organiser Noah Hannibal said to the media on the day, ‘This is bloody senseless murder. The Japanese whaling fleet is right now slaughtering whales in our waters. It can take these gentle giants up to 40 minutes to die after the harpoons tear through their body. These whales endure long and agonising deaths that no being should have to suffer. We want the Japanese goverment to know that as long as they are killing these gentle giants, we will be relentless in our opposition.’
ALV has been campaigning hard to put pressure on the Japanese government. A week earlier our activists focussed international attention on the cruel slaughter by occupying the Japanese Consulate. Protesters wore white bio-hazard suits, coated themselves in fake blood and held up ‘Ban Whaling’ signs. The protesters occupied the consulate for two hours before being removed by police. A strong message was sent to the Japanese Government that they can no longer get away with their senseless killing. (It is important to emphasize that the protests are not against the Japanese people, many of whom are unaware of the slaughter, or are strongly opposed to whaling. The ‘Peace Boat’, has recently docked in Australia, packed with hundreds of Japanese activists demanding an end to the Whale hunt).
MASSIVE MEDIA COVERAGE The coverage of this protest has been phenomenal. The story was covered on all the mainstream Australian news stations (Channel 7 and 10 the first night, and National Nine News on the second night) and numerous interviews on radio stations nation wide. Big photos were printed in our highest circulation newspapers including the Herald-Sun, The Age, The Daily Telegraph and others. Clippings of the photos and articles about the protest in newspapers around the world are pouring in (including several front pages). Photos were moved on the AAP, DPA, AFP and Reuters newswires. The protest has been seen by literally tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people. Here is just a small sample of some of the coverage received for the whales:
AAP story that appeared on the websites or in the pages of over 50 Australian papers including ‘The Australian’, ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, ‘The West Australian’ and ‘The Brisbane Times’:
AFP story that has appeared in countless publications around the world
Sample of coverage from the previous weeks occupation of the Japanese Consulate: ABC article, Yahoo! News article, Agence France-Presse article, Japanese writeup and photos
Channel 7 coverage of the first Consulate occupation (television coverage from the day of action will be available here shortly)
A huge thank you to everyone who took part, and for all whose thoughts were with us on the day. This could not have been such a success without you. ALV will continue to put as much pressure on the Japanese Government as possible until this slaughter is abolished. If you would like to receive information about future ALV actions please subscribe to our enewsletter.
