Captain Paul Watson. (Beth Clifton collage)
Watson to remain in Greenland jail until September 5; cat trial on hold even longer
NUUK, Greenland; SAN DIEGO, California––British prime minister William Gladstone in 1868 declared that, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Be that as it may, both of the courtroom dramas gripping animal advocacy attention in mid-August 2024 have been postponed until September.
Canadian/American conservationist Paul Watson, jailed since July 21, 2024 in Nuuk, Greenland, on a 15-year-old Japanese warrant for allegedly disrupting whaling operations, will have to wait until September 5, 2024 to find out if he will be extradited to Japan.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Return-to-field” trial postponed to mid-September
In San Diego Superior Court, meanwhile, the Pet Assistance Foundation lawsuit against the San Diego Humane Society alleging that the “return-to-field” approach to cat control constitutes illegal abandonment is again on hold until mid-September
Originally convened on July 17, 2024, the case seeks to legally differentiate between neuter/return control of feral cat populations and the now common practice of simply returning impounded cats, tame or feral, to wherever they were found in hopes they will find their own way home.
Paul Watson transported by police.
(Captain Paul Watson Foundation photo)
Why Paul Watson is jailed in Greenland
Paul Watson, 73, now a legal resident of France, a cofounder of Greenpeace in 1971 and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 1977, has sailed under the flag of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation since his mid-2022 ouster from the Sea Shepherds.
(See PIRATES! Captain Paul Watson goes down with the sinking Sea Shepherds and Rebuilding Neptune’s Navy: Captain Paul Watson post-Sea Shepherd.)
Watson was arrested by Danish police flown from Denmark specifically to arrest him, just moments after his vessel, the John Paul DeJoria, landed at Nuuk, Greenland to refuel.
Greenland, like the Faroe Islands, where the Captain Paul Watson Foundation in June 2024 exposed the massacre of 138 pilot whales in a shallow cove, is a autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Paul Watson and his younger son Murtagh.
(Facebook photo)
Faces 15-year sentence in Japan
Captain Paul Watson Foundation chief executive Omar Todd initially attributed the arrest to a complaint issued from the Faroe Islands, but advised media within the hour that, “Paul faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison in Japan.
“The Greenland judge mentioned that Paul would not be released on bail because he fled house arrest in Germany in 2012. So he is held as a flight risk.
“The court does not know how long the ministry of justice will take to deliberate,” Todd said, “so has set this preliminary date of August 15, 2024.”
(See Paul Watson arrested in Greenland; may be extradited to Japan.)
(Beth Clifton collage)
Defense not allowed to present evidence
On August 15, 2024, however, according to a Captain Paul Watson posting to Facebook, Watson appeared in court “after nearly a month of incarceration at Anstalten Detention Center, one of the most remote prisons on Earth,” only to be informed that he is still considered a flight risk “and will continue to be held until September 5th while the Danish Ministry of Justice looks into the case.
“Paul’s legal team was not able to present evidence in relation to the Japanese allegations,” the Facebook posting said, “as the judge was only looking at the extradition request and not the underlying charges.”
Ric O’Barry, left, demonstrates on behalf of Paul Watson. (Dolphin Project photo)
Ric & Helene O’Barry demonstrate for Watson in Denmark
Dolphin Project founder and former Flipper trainer Ric O’Barry and his Danish wife Helene Hesselgaar O’Barry have meanwhile been leading demonstrations in Denmark asking the Danish government to reject the Japanese extradition request.
O’Barry, 83, had a similar experience to Watson’s a decade earlier.
Arriving in Japan on August 31, 2015 to maintain an annual vigil against dolphin hunting in Taiji, the subject of the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, O’Barry was almost immediately arrested in the town of Nachikatsuura, near Taiji, for allegedly violating the Immigration Control Law for not carrying his passport.
Ric O’Barry in Taiji.
(Dolphin Project photo)
Ric O’Barry lived in Japanese airport
After prolonged and allegedly torturous interrogation, in apparent violation of international standards of justice, O’Barry spent several weeks in Taiji with the volunteer observers, then left Japan to lead a series of demonstrations in other nations.
Returning to Japan about six months later, O’Barry upon arrival at the Narita International Airport “was repeatedly interrogated and placed in a deportees’ facility, similar to a jail.
Eventually released under a deportation order, O’Barry lived for two weeks at the airport, eating whatever vegan options he could find at the airport’s 7 Eleven convenience store and trying to sleep in the chairs in waiting areas, Helene Hesselgaar O’Barry told ANIMALS 24-7.
Japanese attorneys Megumi Wada and Takashi Takano eventually won a Tokyo District Court ruling on O’Barry’s behalf that O’Barry was free to return to Japan and even to Taiji, after having been barred for three years and eight months.
(See “I shall return,” Ric O’Barry tells Taiji after torture.)
Attorney Bryan Pease represents the plaintiffs.
(Beth Clifton collage)
San Diego cat trial to run into a third month
Half a world away in San Diego, the cat control “trial of the century,” pending since 2021, may determine the fate of feral and found cats in California and perhaps around the U.S. and the world for years––and perhaps centuries––to come.
Before there can be a verdict, though, the trial itself must be completed, having so far only progressed through hearing from some of the witnesses, with cross-examination yet to come.
Trial sessions in mid-August brought testimony from Kate Hurley of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis campus, and from San Diego Humane Society employee Lynde Nottebaum.
Walt Disney tests Mickey Mouse drawing on a cat.
What it is all about
Both the Pet Assistance Foundation and the San Diego Humane favor the use of trap-neuter-vaccinate-return to control feral cat populations, commonly called “TNR” or “TNVR.”
Introduced by Walt Disney Inc. in 1955 to manage feral cats at Disneyland, popularized as a feral cat control method throughout the U.S. since circa 1990, “TNR” or “TNVR” was separately introduced by the Blue Cross of India in 1966 as a method of managing street dog populations.
It is now the preferred method for managing street dogs in much of the world.
At issue is “return-to-field,” introduced less than a dozen years ago by Kate Hurley, promoted by the no-kill foundation Maddie’s Fund and the Best Friends Animal Society.
Beth & Merritt Clifton with friends.
Many of the cats released in “Return-to-field” programs are tame, friendly, and often fare poorly when obliged to transition to the way of life of authentic feral cats, who have typically spent their entire existence living as wild animals, neither wanting nor needing anything from people.
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The post “Hurry up & wait,” courts tell Paul Watson & San Diego cat advocates appeared first on Animals 24-7.