July 17, 2004
Save the Whales
Right now, more than 30 years of whale protection is at stake.
You’ve probably never heard of Tuvalu.
With 11,500 people and a total size of 26 square kilometers, it seems unlikely this tiny island in the South Pacific could decide the future fate of whales.
Urgent: Please send your letter today – IWC voting begins on 19 July!
But if something isn’t done right now to convince Tuvalu to vote against Japan’s pro-whaling measures at next week’s International Whaling Commission (IWC), thousands of endangered whales will continue to be mercilessly slaughtered. And it will only be the beginning.
For the past several years, Japan has openly targeted small, developing countries such as Tuvalu to join the IWC and vote pro-whaling in exchange for financial assistance and fisheries aid. Japan may actually buy its way into a pro-whaling IWC majority next week. And if it does, it means certain disaster for whales.
Japan is killing protected whales, selling illegal whale meat and buying votes. They must be stopped.
Our sources indicate the IWC vote this year is expected to be a dead heat. Don’t let illicit vote buying and greed decide the future of whales for our children. This isn’t just about whales. It’s about fighting for the right of smaller nations to make informed choices without being bullied.
Send a fax to the Tuvalu Prime Minister letting him know that the world supports countries that value both animals and people. Let’s convince him that doing the right thing (whale watching and conservation) can be both moral and profitable.
If enough concerned citizens act now before the vote, we can turn the small country of Tuvalu into one of the biggest voices in the world.
Click here to fax the Prime Minister now.
For the Whales,
Fred O’Regan
IFAW President and CEO
P.S. Most whales are killed with harpoons designed to explode inside them, taking anywhere from two minutes to over an hour for each whale to die. Please help us ensure this cruel practice ends forever. Fax the Prime Minister of Tuvalu today.
July 09, 2004
Liar, Liar: An open letter to the Bahamian Legal System
man·slaugh·ter n. The unlawful killing of one human by another without express or implied intent to do injury.
Dear Bahamian Legal System,
Once again (yes, again) Bahamians involved in the legal system have failed to understand the importance of their "jobs". Your job, whether as a "juror", a "judge" or even a "court stenographer", becomes very significant when a murderer is on trial, whether that person is guilty or innocent. Unfortunately, I see more justice on Law & Order and Judge Judy than I do within the Bahamian "legal system".
Don't deny it, the list of court mishaps is as long as an award show's red carpet. One question... how many lives have to be taken, have to be snatched from the earth, before you realise that pre-meditated murder isn't manslaughter? How long will it take for you to realise that every time you hand down a manslaughter verdict the guilty criminal laughs all the way back to their cell? Is that justice?
On August 17, 2002, Marcia Rose McKenzie, a 35 year old woman from Toronto, was brutally murdered. She had been chopped seven times with a cutlass and her body was left in a sandpit on the beach. The accused murderer, Leroy Russell, who admitted to the murder on video during a police interview, received a manslaughter conviction for the crime. Manslaughter!?! For pre-meditated, cold blooded, and BRUTAL murder?!
How can chopping a woman to death be considered "without express or implied intent to do injury"?
It seems everytime a foreigner is murdered, the murderer gets off with a manslaughter conviction, no matter how brutal the murder, or how obvious their guilt. Many people are still reeling from the manslaughter conviction of Tenel McIntosh for the brutal murder of the women on Paradise Island several years ago. Some people hint that these men were "framed" by the police. If true, that would only prove - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that the Bahamian criminal justice system is a sham, a complete and embarrassing failure.
Is this what the Bahamas will be remembered for? A lawless and renegade paradise, filled with a bunch of feeble-minded, bribe-taking leeches, who let Bahamian murderers off lightly when they kill foreigners? Tourism, in case you've forgotten, is the only reason the Bahamas is still in existence. And the Bahamas will not remain in existence if this perverted trend toward the murder of foreigners continues. By the way, if you think this letter is too harsh, it's not. It is well deserved justice for a society of criminals.
Sincerely,
An Aggravated Bahamian