Re: [Biofuel] [Fwd: The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ...]
Greetings Keith, Unfortunately, many North Americans will buy the line: Its feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese culture ... The Iron Chef, cooking show made such things popular and have leant their credence to such ideas. Bright Blessings, Kim At 05:53 AM 6/5/2005, you wrote: Hi Kim Greetings, While the Disney company has never been lily white in their treatment of animals, [do you remember the lemmings committing suicide?], this is beyond the point that I ever thought they would go. Put Disney and some aspects of Hong Kong together and it's no big surprise. The new Disneyland is on Lantau Island, same place we were. Poor Lantau. And poor sharks indeed. Apex predators, yes. I don't think sharks are something you want to mess with too much, if you want to go on having oceans and fish and so on. Such ancient and successful creatures must account for a lot of different niches in one way or another, take them away and the whole thing might unravel. Not that it's not unravelling already. But as quite a few people have said, sharks aren't cute like dolphins or pandas. I was discussing the shark slaughter by email with some Chinese folks in Hong Kong who told me they won't eat sharkfin soup now and they want it stopped. They pointed me at a website that had a horrific series of colour photographs of smiling fishermen hacking the fins off sharks and throwing them back in the sea to die. But the website vanished, and I didn't have a copy. I wonder if the Wayback machine might have it. I'll try. And this: Its feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese culture ... That's on old one, that's the excuse the previous colonial British government in Hong Kong used to cover a host of sins. A false sacred cow. Thanks for posting this. Regards Keith ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] [Fwd: The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ...]
Hi Kim Greetings, While the Disney company has never been lily white in their treatment of animals, [do you remember the lemmings committing suicide?], this is beyond the point that I ever thought they would go. Put Disney and some aspects of Hong Kong together and it's no big surprise. The new Disneyland is on Lantau Island, same place we were. Poor Lantau. And poor sharks indeed. Apex predators, yes. I don't think sharks are something you want to mess with too much, if you want to go on having oceans and fish and so on. Such ancient and successful creatures must account for a lot of different niches in one way or another, take them away and the whole thing might unravel. Not that it's not unravelling already. But as quite a few people have said, sharks aren't cute like dolphins or pandas. I was discussing the shark slaughter by email with some Chinese folks in Hong Kong who told me they won't eat sharkfin soup now and they want it stopped. They pointed me at a website that had a horrific series of colour photographs of smiling fishermen hacking the fins off sharks and throwing them back in the sea to die. But the website vanished, and I didn't have a copy. I wonder if the Wayback machine might have it. I'll try. And this: Its feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese culture ... That's on old one, that's the excuse the previous colonial British government in Hong Kong used to cover a host of sins. A false sacred cow. Thanks for posting this. Regards Keith Bright Blessings, Kim The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ... Ed. Note: From time to time, we send out a special edition of PHD DivEmail because of compelling news or events that affect divers around the world. This is a special email from Peter Hughes dedicated to marine conservation. We are specifically addressing the decision by the Disney Corporation to encourage the wanton slaughter of sharks worldwide. This story was widely reported in the Hong Kong area, but received little attention in the U.S. This note contains no promotion for Peter Hughes Diving, Inc. __ The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ... This story is almost unbelievable! Disney Enterprises is opening a new park in Hong Kong this December. Among other amenities, the park is slated to be a very popular spot to host weddings, banquets, and other festive occasions. Disney Hong Kong is actively promoting a banquet menu, hosted at the park, that includes Shark Fin Soup. For the uninitiated, there is a world wide practice of finning sharks. Fishing vessels use long lines and other destructive fishing techniques to hook sharks. The sharks are hauled onboard, their fins are cut off and sold to make the soup, and the rest of the carcasses are summarily tossed overboard. Dead or alive. It matters little whether the sharks are endangered or not. The fishing hooks know little of endangered species. Shark finning is banned in many countries, but the practice still persists. The demand for authentic Shark Fin Soup (once a delicacy served only for China's elite) has turned it into a mass market product, and spawned global ghost fleets of boats which decimate the world's shark populations to fill that demand. We are talking about millions of sharks killed each year. According to most marine scientists, Shark Finning is the single largest reason for the rapidly declining population of sharks worldwide. So now, the lovable Mickey Mouse has turned into a Shark Killer. Actually, a mass murderer, as millions of sharks are slaughtered each year. This from the company that co-produced FINDING NEMO (along with animation specialists Pixar)? What would have been the reaction by millions of young children around the world if Nemo was finned at the end of the movie??? And please ask yourself if your reaction to every shark finned should be any different ... There's an entire group of apex predators being destroyed, and any responsible corporation should not condone and endorse it. And Disney not only condones the practice of finning sharks, but markets it! Menus containing Shark Fin Soup are the most expensive of the banquest packages offered by Disney Hong Kong. What's a few million sharks when there's money to be made You'd like to believe that this was just a case of cultural/corporate oversight, where one division of Disney was doing something that corporate Disney had not reviewed, etc. That's not the case. Disney has summarily rejected the objections to serving Shark Fin Soup, and even announced that it will continue to offer and fulfill the menus, as planned (reported by the BBC and multiple other news groups on May 24, 2005). Its feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese culture ... This, from the company that publicly states on its corporate website: The Walt Disney Company is committed to balancing environmental stewardship with its corporate goals and operations worldwide. Well, it's
[Biofuel] [Fwd: The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ...]
Greetings, While the Disney company has never been lily white in their treatment of animals, [do you remember the lemmings committing suicide?], this is beyond the point that I ever thought they would go. Bright Blessings, Kim The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ... Ed. Note: From time to time, we send out a special edition of PHD DivEmail because of compelling news or events that affect divers around the world. This is a special email from Peter Hughes dedicated to marine conservation. We are specifically addressing the decision by the Disney Corporation to encourage the wanton slaughter of sharks worldwide. This story was widely reported in the Hong Kong area, but received little attention in the U.S. This note contains no promotion for Peter Hughes Diving, Inc. __ The Mouse Who Kills Sharks ... This story is almost unbelievable! Disney Enterprises is opening a new park in Hong Kong this December. Among other amenities, the park is slated to be a very popular spot to host weddings, banquets, and other festive occasions. Disney Hong Kong is actively promoting a banquet menu, hosted at the park, that includes Shark Fin Soup. For the uninitiated, there is a world wide practice of finning sharks. Fishing vessels use long lines and other destructive fishing techniques to hook sharks. The sharks are hauled onboard, their fins are cut off and sold to make the soup, and the rest of the carcasses are summarily tossed overboard. Dead or alive. It matters little whether the sharks are endangered or not. The fishing hooks know little of endangered species. Shark finning is banned in many countries, but the practice still persists. The demand for authentic Shark Fin Soup (once a delicacy served only for China's elite) has turned it into a mass market product, and spawned global ghost fleets of boats which decimate the world's shark populations to fill that demand. We are talking about millions of sharks killed each year. According to most marine scientists, Shark Finning is the single largest reason for the rapidly declining population of sharks worldwide. So now, the lovable Mickey Mouse has turned into a Shark Killer. Actually, a mass murderer, as millions of sharks are slaughtered each year. This from the company that co-produced FINDING NEMO (along with animation specialists Pixar)? What would have been the reaction by millions of young children around the world if Nemo was finned at the end of the movie??? And please ask yourself if your reaction to every shark finned should be any different ... There's an entire group of apex predators being destroyed, and any responsible corporation should not condone and endorse it. And Disney not only condones the practice of finning sharks, but markets it! Menus containing Shark Fin Soup are the most expensive of the banquest packages offered by Disney Hong Kong. What's a few million sharks when there's money to be made You'd like to believe that this was just a case of cultural/corporate oversight, where one division of Disney was doing something that corporate Disney had not reviewed, etc. That's not the case. Disney has summarily rejected the objections to serving Shark Fin Soup, and even announced that it will continue to offer and fulfill the menus, as planned (reported by the BBC and multiple other news groups on May 24, 2005). Its feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese culture ... This, from the company that publicly states on its corporate website: The Walt Disney Company is committed to balancing environmental stewardship with its corporate goals and operations worldwide. Well, it's pretty hard to get after a bunch of ghost fishing fleets (often flying maritime flags of convenience), and only slightly harder to get the attention of the Walt Disney Company. They don't invite critique via email, and don't publish email addresses for their top executives and Board Members. In fact, it's pretty difficult to find any Disney web site that invites any type of electronic feedback from their customers. Hmmm ... If you strongly feel that a company in the global entertainment business which espouses a healthy, environmentally friendly, family style approach to its practices should not be condoning the reckless slaughter of sharks, we'd like to help you deliver your personal message of outrage at this practice. PLEASE WRITE US AN EMAIL (instructions below), and we'll print them, collate them, and distribute them to as many Disney executives as we can, starting with the new CEO, Robert Iger. Many of us have grown to adulthood with the Walt Disney Company, and hold them in the highest respect. We recommend their entertainment to our children, and feel secure that Disney will do the right thing ... But in this matter of Shark Finning, they are as dead wrong as the sharks the fishermen consign to the deep. Please give this your utmost consideration. Dive Ocean Minded, Peter Peter Hughes, Peter Hughes
