80 



reasons if there were no end product involved. He looked shocked. 

 "Why no," he said, "not if nobody makes a profit." 



Last summer I sent to the Pribilof Islands a young lady named 

 Margery Stockton, and asked her to write a report for me. She wrote : 



I am truly sick that my Govermnent makes $5 million each season 

 from the killing of seals. From the "beginning, when the Aleuts beat on empty 5- 

 gallon tins to awaken the seals who were asleep in thedr rookery which the De- 

 partment of the Interior calls a "sanctuary" to the bitter end when, already 

 exhausted by a lung-ibursting overland journey, they are bludgeoned to death, 

 making last, feeble attempts to help each other, it is a barbaric, brutal business. 

 And when one sees 1,000 to 1,500 seals bludgeoned to death per day, the words 

 "sanctuary" and "conservation" become a mockery. 



Mr. Chairman, let us have an end to this mockery. Let us report 

 out of this committee H.K. 6558 and send out a clarion call not only 

 to our fellow citizens in this country, but to all the nations on this 

 earth that this comitry will have no more of this bloody business, 

 this exercise in hypocrisy, this traffic in torture. 



Mr. DiNGE[LL. The committee is grateful to you for a very powerful 

 and helpful statement. 



Any questions of Mr. Amory ? 



Mr. Amory, we are grateful to you and thank you for your very 

 helpful testimony. 



Our next witness is our very distinguished and able colleague, author 

 of some of the legislation before us, the Honorable David Pryor. 



Mr. Pryor, we are privileged to have you before us. 



The Chair wishes to commend you for your outstanding interest in 

 this matter and the distinguished work you have done in this area, 



We are happy t-o have you present. 



STATEMEin: OF HON. DAVID PRYOR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 

 CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARKANSAS 



Mr. Pryor. Mr. Chairman, it is indeed a privilege for me to appear 

 this morning before this committee on behalf of H.R. 6558, the Ocean 

 Mammal Protection Act of 1971. 



This bill was introduced some 5 months ago, cosponsored by roughly 

 90 Members of Congress, and seeks to offer maximum protection for 

 ocean mammals generally and endangered species specifically. Wliile 

 it is a conservation bill a;t heart, it is truly much more than that. It is 

 a bill which goes to the very nature of what our country ought to be. 

 It glorifies life and rejects brutality. It speaks to the future by recog- 

 nizing its past. 



In the 5 months since I introduced this legislation, I have received 

 literally thousands of letters in support of this measure. If this com- 

 mittee only had the time, the testimony of those thousands of letters 

 would speak much more eloquently than I, of not only the need for 

 this legislation, but the heart of it. 



Before beginning an extended discussion of the provisions of this 

 legislation, and the annomicement of what I consider to be a major 

 change in it, I would like for the committee to listen to the words of 

 two experts who unfortunately could not be with us today. The first 

 is addressed to the committee for humane legislation. It says in part : 



To me, to support the Harris-Pryor bill is a most obvious duty. Man has al- 

 ready been responsible of too much destruction while technology at the service 

 of wisdom could have made a paradise out of our planet, and protected the more 



