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What is ‘animal welfare’?

“Welfare, including health, has many different aspects and is defined by both the physical and psychological state of an animal.”

Webster, 2003

“To be concerned about animal welfare is to be concerned with the subjective feelings of animals, particularly the unpleasant subjective feelings of suffering and pain.”

Dawkins, 1988

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Statesman and Philosopher

The lives of whales

Whales and humans: what we know and what we don’t…

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IWC SC59 Bryde’s whale RMP implementation simulation trials modeling survival rate estimates

Bryde’s whale breaching

The lives of whales

Images courtesy: James Cook University, Minke whale project

‘Pavlova’

How are whales killed?Weaponry

How are whales killed?The hunt and slaughter process

1. Pursuit

2. Aim

3. Fire

4. Secondary killing methods

5. Assessment of death

The resultsHow many die immediately?

Using most recent Japanese and Norwegian data, an average of 48% of whales die instantaneously

Norway1998-2002

minke

Japan2003-5minke

Japan2003-4

sei

Japan2003-4

Bryde's

0

10

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Country / species

Instantaneous death rate (%)

2889

1080

100

100

The resultsHow long do whales take to die?

• Whales take on average 2.5 – 3 minutes to die

• Max time to death in Norway (1998-2002) was 1.5 hours

Japan2003-4

Bryde's

Japansei

2003-4

Japan2003-5 minke

Norway1998-2002

minke

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Country / speciesTime to death (minutes / seconds)

2889

100

100

1080

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The resultsLarge whale welfare: Iceland and Japan’s fin whale hunts

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Average length (metres)

Average time to death (seconds)minke

Bryde’s

sei

fin?

©Jonas Fr. Thorsteinsson/WSPA

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The resultsSuffering we can’t see…

Struck and lost

Unborn foetuses

Impacts on family and social groups

Whale welfare compared with farm animal welfare

OIE 2007 guidelines for the slaughter of animals• ‘Conscious animals should not be thrown, dragged or dropped and they should be grasped or lifted in a manner which avoids pain or suffering and physical damage’;

• ‘Animals should be adequately restrained and then stunned before slaughter’;

• ‘No dressing procedure should be performed until all brain stem reflexes have ceased’;

• ‘Animals should be handled in such a way as to avoid harm, distress or injury’;

• ‘Pregnant animals in the final 10% of their gestation period should be neither transported nor slaughtered…in all cases, the welfare of fetuses and dams during slaughter should be safeguarded.’

Whale watching: a global alternative to whaling

Map courtesy E.Hoyt 2001 Whale watching report (IFAW/UNEP)

Whaling and whale-watching:Can and should they co-exist?

• Norway, 2006: 80 tourists on whale safari see one of the whales shot infront of them.“This really wasn't what we came to see."

• Japan, 2005: 25 whale-watchers witness a whale being harpooned and hauled aboard a ship off Hokkaido. Two other whale-watching boats left the area to avoid seeing the hunt.

• Iceland, 2003: Whalers kill and butcher a whale in a popular whale-watching bay near Reykjavic, despite assurances from the Ministry of Fisheries that whalers would not hunt in whale-watching areas. Whale-watching boat diverted their trip to avoid seeing the killing.

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Conclusions1. Whaling is inherently cruel: it

is indefensible to subject sentient animals to such unavoidably cruel hunting practices.

2. Whaling is bad for whale welfare and bad for people and industries who wish to observe them in their natural environment.

3. The most humane – and economically important – use of whales in the 21st century is responsible watching: not catching.

4. On its 60th birthday, the IWC needs to refocus itself as a protection organisation.