531 



Page 21.— Sec. 207— the authorization of only $1 million for research, enforce- 

 ment, all commission activity and the Advisory Cktmmittee seems too low and 

 unnecessarily limited. Why not leave it open ended or at least increased to $5 



million? 



In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, The American Forestry Association wishes to 

 go on record strongly in .support of legislation and a federal program to insure 

 the protection of ocean mammals. We recommend, however, the managed use of 

 these resources rather than total preservation. We should take whatever steps 

 are neces.sary to insure the perpetuation of each specie, but it should be based upon 

 the best scientific evidence we can find. Although we support both H.R. 7556 and 

 H.R. 10420 in purpose, we must favor H.R. 10420 as being good conservation and 

 oppose H.R. 7556 as being contradictory to good resource management. 



Statement by Db. Robert Rienow 



My name is Dr. Robert Rienow. I am co-author of the widely read book, MO- 

 MENT IN THE SUN, a report on the deteriorating quality of American life, 

 and a professor of Political Science specializing in International Law and Rela- 

 tions. 



You and I are witnessing a corrosion of the sensitivities of Western man under 

 the brutalizing impact of an egomaniac society. Man's whole history is marked 

 by cruelty from the accounts of Herodutus to the drawing and quartering of 

 human victims in England's Middle Ages. 



But the drive, the official declaration of society has been upward. We don't 

 bait bears, we ban cockfights, we debate the cruelties of the rodeo and struggle 

 against the introduction of bullfights. 



It is imperative that the United States set an uplifting pattern because the 

 course this nation follows has universal significance. The world is of a single mold 

 and as we Americans sear our feelings and condone the reckless slaughter of 

 ocean mammals we render the rest of the world equally insensible. 



If civilization will persist in a form that betrays any tenderness, a com- 

 passionate lead must be taken by this country. There are two compelling reasons 

 to halt the butchery of ocean mammals. They exist only in sombre numbers 

 pressing ever more the border of extinction. This is not a case of exterminating 

 a species that can be replaced by a similar one from another territory. What 

 we are dealing with here is the erasure for all time of a work of the Creator. 



The second reason we must demand a cessation of the carnage is this: the 

 killing of ocean mammals recently publicized, however, revolting to many of 

 us, is accepted in what is already a culture of violence. A people that can be 

 indifferent to the destiny of a species and hardened to the intemperate cruelty 

 of the killing can never cultivate the sensitivity upon which to build a merciful 

 social order. It is not without significance that the early humane societies were 

 Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Animals, A compas- 

 sionate government cannot construct an Auschwitz. Nor can it hire club wielders 

 to bludgeon their way through a herd of seals or condone an explosive harpon 

 in the belly of a whale. 



I would plead that this committee recognize the awesomeness of its mission 

 to protect these ocean mammals at once so valuable to man's spirit and in such 

 imminent danger of eternal darkness. 



America will have difficulty earning a respected place in the annals of his- 

 tory if it presides over an Inquisition of Ocean Mammals. More than all this we 

 can never live with ourselves if we exterminate these rare and majestic crea- 

 tures of the sea. 



Statement by Walter S. Boabdman on Behalf of Defenders of Wildlife 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my name is Walter S. Board- 

 man. I am representing the Defenders of Wildlife, 2000 N Street, N.W., Wash- 

 ington, D.C. 



Thank you for this invitation to present views on marine mammal protection. 



In 1964', Brian Davies, after attending a meeting of the sealing industry with 

 Canadian Government officiaLs. reached the conclusion that "an over-capitalized 

 sealing industry was intent on killing the last seal pup in order to get a return 

 on its equipment, and that those who profit from the seals gave not one thought 



