Hong Kong
(CNN) – A local airline has found itself in hot water with environmentalists
over a recent cargo flight of dolphins.
According
to the Chinese newspaper China Daily, the airline transported five dolphins
from Japan to Vietnam on January 16. An internal memo to the airline staff was
leaked boasting of the transaction’s success saying that it earned the company
HK$850,000 (US $110,000) in cargo revenue. The memo also included a photograph
of the dolphins lying in shallow, narrow containers with their fins protruding,
inside the Boeing 733F cargo plane.
The
controversy has sparking an online petition at change.org pressuring Hong Kong
Airlines to stop carrying live dolphins as cargo. So far, 4000 people have
signed.
“They spend
at least seven hours in this cruel confinement. Dolphins are neither cargo, nor
commerce, nor entertainment” read the petition which describes the plastic
funnels used to ship the live dolphins as “flying coffins.”
China
Daily, a state-run English newspaper, reported that the five dolphins are
believed to be from the Japanese town of Taiji, the scene of an annual dolphin
slaughter depicted in the Oscar award winning documentary “The Cove.”
Hong Kong
Airlines said “no dolphins were injured during the shipment,” that they adhere to government rules and
International Air Transport Association regulations on live animal
transportation and are committed to animal welfare protection. The airline also
added in a statement that they were “totally unaware of the complexities”
surrounding the “dark side of the dolphin story.”
The airline
reportedly made a stopover in Hong Kong and a spokesperson for the Agriculture
Fisheries and Conservation Department confirmed that they were aware of the
dolphins in advance but did not carry out any inspection.
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