Hong Kong Airlines
HONG KONG – Hong Kong Airlines is facing a controversy over animal cruelty, after shipping five live dolphins from Japan to Vietnam last month.
Information about the flight became public when an internal memo to airline staff was leaked to Chinese media last week.
The email said the flight, which included a two-hour refuelling stop in Hong Kong, netted HK$850,000 (S$137,500) in cargo revenue and that airline executives wanted to develop the business. It also included a photo of the dolphins being held in narrow makeshift structures inside the vessel.
Since it was leaked on Wednesday, more than 2,850 people have signed an online petition protesting against the shipment, China Daily reported. Hong Kong Airlines’ phone lines and website have also been jammed with angry calls and messages.
The five dolphins, flown from Osaka to Hanoi on Jan 16, were believed to have been sedated and kept in the cargo hold for at least seven hours.
They are suspected to have originated from Taiji, the area featured in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, where dolphins are slaughtered in their thousands every year.
Hong Kong Airlines declined to answer questions about where the dolphins originated from or their final destination. But a company spokeswoman told the Sunday Morning Post newspaper that they were fully “committed to the protection of animal welfare” and wanted an “open dialogue” with animal welfare groups.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the Humane Society International have written to Hong Kong Airlines president Yang Jian Hong warning of a boycott unless the company promises to stop transporting dolphins.
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