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Video footage on whaling

PHOTO: AP

A whale being hauled on a fishing boat in the west coast of Iceland, in this August 23, 2003 file picture.

Tokyo: Japan will be confronted with evidence of the cruelty environmentalists say is inflicted during its ``scientific'' whale hunts, after its attempt to seize control of the International Whaling Committee suffered yet another setback at the weekend. As tempers frayed at the IWC meeting on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, Australia was preparing to present video footage taken by environmentalists during Japan's recent hunt in the Southern Ocean showing whales taking as long as 30 minutes to die after being harpooned. It rebuffed environmentalists' claims that whalers drown harpooned whales by dragging them backwards through the water. Ian Campbell, Australia's Environment Minister, called the footage ``absolutely inhumane and quite disgusting.'' Japan's hopes of achieving a majority at the IWC all but disappeared over the weekend, when it lost three key votes. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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