SAVE A WHALE BY EBAY AUCTION

[Anonymous]

Whales for saving by eBay auction
An
animal welfare group is enlisting the help of eBay to protect
endangered fin whales hunted by Icelandic ships.The World Society for
the Protection of Animals (WSPA) will auction “rights” to a whale’s
life on the online site.WSPA wants to raise $180,000 (£95,000), the
value of meat from a fin whale; it then aims to pay this sum to
hunters, and ask them to let one whale go.Iceland’s return to
commercial whaling after a 20-year halt has brought diplomatic protest
from many quarters.On Wednesday, a group of 25 countries delivered a
demarche, a formal letter of protest, to the Icelandic government
through their ambassadors in Reykjavik.

Parts of a whale
The
eBay auction is WSPA’s attempt to involve the public, in Britain and
elsewhere.People logging in to the site will be able to pledge sums of
£10 or more, in the hope of building up to the price of a fin whale’s
meat.”We’re asking the public to go and bid for the life of this whale,
and send Iceland a message that the public will not stand for the
hunting of these whales,” said WSPA’s campaigns director Leah
Garces.”We hope that the message will be strong enough; that there’s
international condemnation, it’s cruel and the public are against
it.”WSPA acknowledges that Icelandic whalers or the Reykjavik
government may refuse to accept money raised this way, even assuming
the public pledges enough.But Ms Garces denied the idea is a gimmick,
telling BBC News: “The idea is to raise in Iceland’s mind that this is
not acceptable.”If Iceland will not take the money, WSPA says it will
put sums raised towards its whaling campaigns.Iceland announced last
month that it would resume commercial whaling after a break of 20
years.It intends to hunt 30 minke whales and nine fins over the coming
year. The fin whale is categorised as endangered on the
internationally-recognised Red List of Threatened Species.The Icelandic
government has reacted calmly to the demarche, saying that protests
made against other whaling nations such as Japan and Norway had not
resulted in any breakdown of diplomatic relations.

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November 2, 2006 at 2:23 PM