The Politicians are Ready to Kill Dolphins Again

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You remember:
Millions of Americans boycotted tuna to save the dolphins. And we won. Last year the U.S. tuna fleet didn't kill a single dolphin and dolphin deaths have dropped by 96% in the Eastern Pacific. But now one of the great environmental victories of the last decade is being threatened by extremists in Congress and free trade bureaucrats ready to allow the dolphin slaughter to begin again.

Giving Mexico a License to Kill
Mexico and Venezuela want back into america's canned tuna market, now closed to them because they continue to needlessly capture and slaughter thousands of dolphins each year in their tuna nets. With an anti-environmental Republican majority in Congress - and the Clinton Administration's "free trade" politics - high priced foreign lobbyists have seen an opening to declare war on the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. Bottom line? They want their dolphin-deadly tuna sold in America. Incredibly, they even want it to carry a "dolphin- safe" label!

Trashing U.S. Law and Cheating Consumers
Current law insures that all tuna sold in the U.S. is dolphin-safe:no dolphins can be killed or injured during fishing. This dolphin-safe standards also bans chasing and capturing dolphins in tuna nets because of the harm to dolphin communities. The U.S. tuna industry has remained profitable while our nation became 100% dolphin - safe. There's simply no "free trade" reason for America to sell out its own governmental laws and fling its borders open to the dolphins killers. In fact, President Clinton and Newt Gingrich promised that passing NAFTA would not result in weakening U.S. environmental protections

Bringing Back the Dolphin Massacre
The Republican sponsored "Dolphin Death Bill" will open the US. to an avalanche of dolphin-deadly tuna from south of the border. It will also let U.S. vessels go back to killing dolphins and change the definition of dolphin-safe to allow capturing and killing dolphins in tuna nets. House bill HR 2823 and its companion bill in the Senate S 1420 will wipe out decades of progress on dolphin protection by establishing annual quotas for "acceptable" dolphin mortality. That means thousands of dolphins will be needlessly maimed and slaughtered simply to restore profitability to a barbaric foreign industry. America has already voted on this issue. During the tuna boycott we made it clear that the only acceptable quota for dolphin kills is zero. Take a moment to remind our elected officials that they work for us, the American people, not for high priced foreign lobbyists who want to trash our environmental laws and profit from killing dolphins.

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Letter to;
President Bill Clinton 
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500                         Dolphin Safe

Dear President Clinton:

We are deeply troubled that your State Department is publicly committed to weakening the "dolphin-safe" tuna label to allow the chase, capture, injury, and killing of dolphins. Today, U.S. supermarket shelves carry only tuna caught without setting nets on dolphins. Foreign countries which continue to kill dolphins in order to catch tuna should not be allowed to flood our market with dolphin-unsafe tuna.

We in Hollywood community have a proud and active history of supporting strong dolphin protection laws. We played a major role in convincing U.S. tuna companies to adopt the dolphin-safe program now in place. This program is working. Please do not reverse decades of progress in ending the senseless slaughter of dolphins.

Weakening the definition of dolphin-safe tuna is deadly for dolphins;penalizes the U.S. tuna industry; sets a dangerous precedent for weakening environmental laws as a result of trade pressure from Mexico; and is opposed by U.S. consumers and the public.

Please intervene to reverse this policy. Sincerely.

Eddie Albert, Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Brigitte Bardot, Bob Barker, Daniel Benzali, Ed Begley Jr, Clint Black, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Pierce Brosnan, LaVar Burton, Nicolas Cage, Keith Carradine, Jim Carrey, Chevy & Jayni Chase, Toni Childs, Michael Crichton, Sean Connery, Ted Danson, Jean Paul DeJoria, Dick Donner & Lauren Shuler- Donner, Cary Elwes, Carrie Fisher, Michael J. Fox, Richard Gere, Brian James, James Garner, Larry Hagman, Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Mariette Hartley, Tippie Herden, Don Henley, David Hoberman, Dustin Hoffman, Lauren Holly, Rand Holston, Peter Horton, Perry Katz, K.D. Lang, Stan Lee, Julian Lennon, Ray Liotta, Esai Morales, Peter Morton, Jerry & Ann Moss, Rupert & Anne Murdoch, Jack Nicholson, Gregory Peck, Joe Pesci, Michelle Phillips, Stephanie Powers, Mimi Rogers, Joel Schumacher, George C. Scott, Pauly Shore, Joel Silver, Alicia Silverstone, Keely Shaye Smith, Oliver Stone, Sharon Stone, Lily Tomlin, John Travolta, Betty White, Robin Williams, Robin Wright, Vilmos Zsigmond

Four Reasons Why We Must Defeat HR 2823 and S 1420 The Dolphin Death Bill
1. U.S. vessels will be allowed to go back to catching and killing dolphins in tuna nets. Last year no dolphins were killed by the U.S. tuna fleet and fishermen have shown they can make a profit without slaughtering dolphins. The Dolphin Death Bill overturns the U.S. ban on catching and killing dolphins in tuna nets.

2. U.S. markets will be reopened to imports of tuna caught by killing dolphins. By law, all tuna now sold in the U.S. must be dolphin-safe. HR 2823 and S 1420 will change that. Not only will Dolphin-deadly tuna flood our supermarket shelves, but American companies who don't use tuna caught by harassing or killing dolphins will be penalized.

3. The legal definition of "dolphin-safe" will be changed to include tuna that is caught by capturing maiming and killing dolphins in nets. Because of its deadly effects, the chase and capture of dolphins in tuna nets is prohibited under the current definition of dolphin-safe. HR 2823 and S 1420 will make it impossible for American consumers to know which tuna is actually dolphin-safe.

4. This legislation is another assault on the environment by the Republican Congress. The list of sponsors for the Dolphin Death Bill reads like a Who's Who of anti- environmental politicians and includes Representatives Don Young (R-AK) and Randy Cunningham (R-CA) and Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and John Breaux (D-LA).

Here's what you can do to stop them:
Mail the coupons below and call 1-800-DOLPHIN

Over 85 groups oppose the Dolphin Death Bill and instead support legislation introduced by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Joseph Biden (D-DE) and congressman George Miller (D-CA), including:
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, American Oceans Campaign, Animal Protection Institute, Animal Welfare Institute, Ark Trust, Defenders of Wildlife, Dolphin Connection, Earth Island Institute, Earthtrust, ECO, Endangered Species Project, Friends of the Earth, Friends of Animals, Fund for Animals, Greenpeace Foundation, Humane Society of the United States, In Defense of Animals, International Wildlife Coalition, Marine Mammal Fund, Oceanic Society, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Progressive Animal Welfare Society, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Sierra Club. This ad was sponsored by a grant from the Paul Mitchell Salon Hair Care Foundation.