Buying Whale Meat on Amazon?

According to a Humane Alert issued by Humane Society International (HSI), the Japanese subsidiary of Amazon is selling hundreds of products manufactured from the meat of endangered fin whales and other protected whale species being slaughtered at the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

While Amazon's website prominently displays a message touting its mission to reduce its environmental impact, the killing of whales under the protection of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and The International Whaling Commission is doing anything but reducing their environmental impact. Furthermore, the way in which these majestic creatures are slaughtered is horrifically inhumane.  These whales often suffer for more than an hour before they die after being struck by a hunter’s exploding harpoon.

So is Amazon.com’s wholly owned subsidiary, Amazon Japan, really turning a blind eye to the undermining of the international laws when the company continues to hunt and trade the meat of these protected whales?

Shockingly, this appears to be the case. According to HSI and an article written by Candace Calloway Whiting, a volunteer at the Center for Whale Research at Friday Harbor, Washington Amazon’s Japanese subsidiary is actively involved in selling hundreds of whale, porpoise and dolphin products.

 EIA tested several of the whale products sold by Amazon Japan. The majority of them were found to contain mercury at levels that exceeded the Japanese national limits, putting the health of consumers at risk. As a result, EIA and IHS are calling for an embargo of Amazon.

What I find most alarming, (based on this disturbing information), is the thought that Amazon’s financial bottom line may be taking preference over their professed concern for environmental protection. According to Whiting, Amazon.com Inc. receives profitable revenues from the sale of these whale products. As a company with a market value of almost $83 billion and with shares presently trading at $181.53,  it seems that Amazon  does not only condone the sale of contaminated food products posing a substantial risk to the health of those consuming them, but also expedites the sale of the products harvested from these protected, endangered animals.

Dr. Mark Jones, the Executive Director and veterinarian for HSI UK said, "There is no humane way to kill whales, so the creatures slaughtered to produce the food products being sold by Amazon will have endured a bloody and painful death…As a global brand, Amazon must now act to protect both consumers from environmentally polluted products and cetaceans from the cruel exploitation of commercial whaling."

Watch the HSI video posted on vimeo.com. Warning: Graphic images are displayed. Amazon Sells Whale Meat

Help protect the whales of Japan! Send a message to Amazon asking them to stop selling meat from whales and other endangered animals.

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