Kyodo Senpaku, a Japanese whaling company, has drawn massive flak and international condemnation from rights activists for experimenting to stock meat in vending machines in Tokyo.
What Happened: Kyodo Senpaku initially planned to stock meat from its kills in four unmanned vending machines in Tokyo, reported Yahoo News Australia.
The company plans over 100 vending machines in the next five years and aims to expand into Japan's second-largest city, Osaka.
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While a wide array of similar vending machines already exists in Japan, Kyodo does not surprise Japanese animal rights activist Ren Yabuki, but he thinks "it is ethically wrong to sell living things in vending machines."
The whaling company is also building a new $67 million factory ship — expected to be operational by 2024 — to replace its aging vessel. The new ship will be key to processing increased kills permitted under the Japanese government's planned new quota.
International charity, Whale and Dolphin Conservation's Astrid Fuchs called the vending machine plan a "cynical sales ploy."
"Only a small but influential group of politicians and whaling industry stakeholders drive the country's whaling interest," she told The Independent.
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Danny Groves, the charity's UK head of communications, said stocking whales in vending machines was "absurd" and "cruel."
"There is little demand for the meat and the hunts are cruel — involving grenade tipped harpoons that are fired at a moving target from a moving ship. Many whales take a long time to die," said Groves.
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