Dear Friends,

Agency: The US based Talbots clothing store chain is linked, through their Japanese parent company - JUSCO - to a massive commercial trade in whale, dolphin and porpoise products.

PLEASE FAX OR POST YOUR LETTER TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF TALBOTS to express your strong concern that the JUSCO COMPANY of Japan, which owns Talbots is one of Japan's largest retail distributors of whale, dolphin and porpoise products through their chain of 625 supermarkets.

Please write to:
Arnold Zetcher
Chief Executive Officer
Talbots
Fax: 781 741 4927
One Talbots Drive
Hingham, Masschusetts 02043

I would be very grateful to receive a copy of your letter which can be e-mailed to Geetha Jayabose: geetha@eia-international.org or by fax to EIA at 1 202 986 8626.

EIA has obtained extensive documentation of the cetacean trade of JUSCO through its chain of 625 supermarkets in Japan. EIA telephone surveyed 388 of them and found almost half sell whale meat. Subsequent on site visits to 37 stores in 18 Japanese cities revealed whale, dolphin or porpoise meat on sale in 22 of 37 stores.

The Government of Japan's aggressive anti-cetacean conservation campaign that seeks to overturn the existing IWC moratorium on hunting large whales, while continuing the unregulated killing of dolphins, porpoises and small whales around the Japanese coast relies on companies like JUSCO to commercially distribute cetacean products all around Japan.

In 1988 JUSCO Co. bought the controlling interest in Talbots, the US based women's clothing retailer. Four JUSCO executives sit on the Talbots Board. Since then, more than 250,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises have been killed by Japanese hunters.

Talbots owns and operates 733 stores, 707 in the US, 20 in Canada and 6 in the UK. Talbots plays an integral role in the success of JUSCO due to their extreme profitability.  The President of JUSCO stated that JUSCO's recent record profits were in part due to increased sales by Talbots.

Jusco is presently responsible for the following practices;

1. Selling whale products from species (Minke and Brdyes) that are protected under international law (both IWC and CITES;
2. Selling whale products from species caught in the Antarctic whale sanctuary where no whale catching is permitted;
3. Selling dolphin and porpoise products from species that are being over hunted and/or are in decline around the Japanese coast;
4. Selling whale, dolphin or porpoise products that are contaminated with mercury pollution in excess of the Government of Japan approved limits for consumption of food by humans.

The women's outfits sold in Talbots are connected to the whaling outfits in Japan through JUSCO's large scale commercial distribution of whale, dolphin and porpoise.

The President of JUSCO has admitted sales of US$500,000 of whale meat but has refused to end the sale of cetacean products in JUSCO's vast supermarket network..
You are all familiar with the intransigence of the Government of Japan over the past 15 years in refusing to abide by the international moratorium.

You know, too that without commercial distributors like JUSCO and extensive subsidies from the Japanese government, the virtually dead whaling industry of Japan would cease to exist and the threat to whales from large scale commercial hunting would disappear with it.

Please will you write one letter to the Chief Executive of Talbots, to ask him and his board to use their influence and commercial links with JUSCO to press for the urgent cessation of JUSCO's sale of whale, dolphin and porpoise products?

Thanks for your help.
Allan Thornton
President
Environmental Investigation Agency

Individuals can send a fax letter to Talbots CEO Arnold Zetcher by clicking on the EIA website at www.ecocrimes.org.

You might not think that Talbots, the classic women's clothing store, could have anything in common with the cruel slaughter of whales and dolphins. But it does.

The very same international conglomerate that owns the majority shareholder in Talbots also owns supermarkets in Japan that sell whale and dolphin meat.* Even meat from protected minke whales hunted in a recognized whale sanctuary finds its way to supermarkets in Japan.

The government of Japan continues to allow whales to be killed in defiance of an international treaty and worldwide criticism. One of the ways to stop this is to take this off the shelves and eliminate the market for whale and dolphin meat. As long as whale meat can be plucked off supermarket shelves along with canned goods and toilet paper, the killing will continue.

*[JUSCO (U.S.A.), Inc., Talbots's majority shareholder, is a wholly owned subsidiary of JUSCO Co., Ltd. Four of Talbots' nine directors also hold positions with JUSCO (U.S.A.), Inc. or JUSCO Co., Ltd., which also owns supermarkets in Japan that have been identified as selling whale and dolphin meat.]