I've been blogging about the dolphin slaughter for over a year now, doing what little I can to raise awareness of the drive fisheries in Japan that brutally slaughter thousands of dolphins every year.
But nothing gets the attention of the media like a beautiful young Hollywood starlet, so I am glad that Hayden Panittiere has brought the slaughter to American televisions like no other activism has been able to do before:
You may have seen this AP footage already:
But here's the first I've seen of her breaking down and sobbing, and boy doesn't this ever drive home the heartbreak of this slaughter:
Cynics are bound to comment that Hayden Panittiere is an actor but, as an actor myself, my sense is that what most people don't realize is that acting is a process of stripping away the internal censors that prevent us from sharing our feelings openly, so that they become more available to us in the moment, creating a more sensitive person who is in touch with his or her feelings, which are therefore much closer to the surface. This is incredibly valuable when calling on emotions for important scenes when you're lucky to only get one or two takes on a busy TV schedule, but it can be painful when dealing with situations in real life, as you can clearly see from the second video.
I can only hope that Panittiere's reaction was mirrored by the millions of people that have seen the footage this week.
Sadly, only 8 of about 20 dolphins stranded in a shallow cove off Long Island, New York have been returned by rescuers to Northwest Harbor, giving them a shot at surviving back out at sea. 6 others have died, and there remain about 4 more stranded in the cove. It is believed that the dolphins may have followed fish through an opening to the cove that allows boats in and out.
There have been a number of unusual dolphin strandings this year, including a recent beaching in Boston, along with 31 other dolphins that have been stranded along the coast of Massachusetts since the beginning of the year. According to Charles Bowman, president of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, above-average winter temperatures in the Northeast United States have caused some marine life, including dolphins, to linger closer to the shore than usual.
Animal-friendly thanks to the nearly 80 rescuers and 10 marine biologists that worked to return the dolphins back out toward the Atlantic.
Seeing more Japanese dolphin slaughter stories in print lately... Much respect to Ric O'Barry for pushing so hard to get the media to cover the issue, and thanks to Jeff Bryant for making sure I don't miss a single update. This particular article covers the dolphins that aren't violently slaughtered every year in drive fisheries (excerpt):
"Leading aquariums and swim-with-dolphin dealers are subsidising the Japan dolphin slaughter by paying £25,000 or more for a few 'show' dolphins from the catch," said Ric O'Barry, a former US Navy diver who trained the dolphin star of the 1960s television series before turning against dolphin captivity in 1970.
Ocean World Adventure Park - a million-pound tourist resort in the Dominican Republic where visitors spend more than £60 a time to swim with captive dolphins - has placed a £300,000 order for 12 bottlenose dolphins. The dolphins, dubbed the "Taiji 12", were taken in what he says is one of the most violent and brutal captures that he has ever seen.
A report released last year by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society reveals that dozens of dolphins captured in Japan's annual "drive fisheries" - and then spared - have ended up in aquariums around the world.
Thank the editors of the Independent for their continued positive coverage of important animal issues. And use the opportunity, if you will, to condemn not only the incarceration of these magnificent beings, but also their decimation. E-mail your responses, providing your postal address and telephone number.
David McNeill is to be congratulated for getting the word out. First Japan Focus, now the UK's The Independent:
This paragraph is particularly telling:
The fishermen, who consider dolphins just big fish, like tuna, are bewildered that anyone would find this cruel, and describe the protesters as extremists. "If you walked into an American slaughterhouse for cows, it wouldn't look very pretty either," says one, who identifies himself only as Kawasaki. "The killing is done in the open here, so it looks worse than it is." Most of the fishermen are descended from families that have been killing and eating the contents of the sea around Taiji for generations, and reject arguments that dolphins are "special". Says Kawasaki: "They're food, like dogs for the Chinese and Koreans."
There's so many ways to pick apart that paragraph, from the notion that dolphins are somehow not mammals (as if that matters in whether or not they should be slaughtered so senselessly) to the comparisons to slaughterhouses and dogs served up as food.
Many Japanese do not even know about the dolphin hunt. But when they find out, they often do not agree with the fishermen:
"I'm shocked," says Keiko Shibuya, from Osaka. "I couldn't imagine eating dolphin. They're too cute."
Sadly, cutetarians could be the best ally we have against the dolphin slaughter. Many people will happily munch away on a hamburger while condemning dolphin sashimi, despite the hypocrisy. While it would be nice if such individuals turned from eating all animals, those of us motivated to end the dolphin slaughter lose nothing by leveraging cutetarians' sensitivity to the animals they have come to love.
I encourage you to read the entire article. While I have covered the subject before, McNeill keeps it fresh with this new piece.
David McNeill interviewed Flipper trainer-turned-activist Ric O'Barry a couple of days ago, so go check that out. You learn a fair amount about the man, why he went from dolphin trainer to animal activist, and why the dolphin slaughter continues.
It's a shame the major media isn't covering the senseless dolphin slaughter and international outrage that comes with it. It's hard not to think, as Ric suggests, that they are instead helping to cover it up. As I was recently reminded, corporate "cover-ups" sometimes are less about malfeasance, and more about laziness or negligence. But, either way, I'm happy to do my part to keep Japan's ugly secret out in the spotlight.
Thanks to Jeff Bryant for making sure I knew about this interview.
CBS brings us an AP story about a bottlenose dolphin with extra fins that was captured on October 28th. Nowhere does it mention how or why this dolphin was captured in the first place, a sad survivor of the Taiji dolphin drive fishery that saw thousands of dolphins slaughtered by so-called fishermen. Stealing a five year-old dolphin from a native environment to be plunged into x-ray and DNA testing for no important reason is awful in and of itself, but the fact that this dolphin was part of a pod that was obliterated, with about 200 brutally slaughtered and the rest taken to a whale museum is simply abominable.
Reader Jeff Bryant, from Kobe, Japan wrote a letter to The Japan Times, which published Boyd Harnell's story about the dolphin slaughter last week, that offers the following details:
Helene O'Barry, a Danish journalist, presently in Taiji documenting the dolphin drive fisheries is a friend with whom I am in contact. She witnessed the pod to which this dolphin belonged, being driven into the capture cove, Hatagiri bay, in Taiji along with over two hundred other dolphins, Risso and bottlenose, and 75 pilot whales. There were a number of baby dolphins in this group which either died or were taken to the whale museum. The remaining 200 were all brutally slaughtered. You can see pictures of their entrails [at] Ms. O'Barry's weblog. The ones who were not slaughtered will be sent to marine parks or kept at the whale museum like the extra finned dolphin in the article.
The CBS story also features a comments section at the end, with a discussion that has focused mainly on evolution. I tried to return the focus back to the slaughter with this post:
In all this discussion, shouldn't we be asking whether it's appropriate behavior to steal a dolphin from the ocean in the first place?
What's more, this dolphin is one of the few survivors of a brutal slaughter that goes on every year. AP's story does not mention this horrific practice at all, which is a terrible shame.
To learn more about how this dolphin was found and came to be captured in the first place, read this:
We shouldn't be wasting our time talking about whether this is an evolutionary step forward or backward. That's not terribly important when thousands of cetaceans are being barbarically torn from the ocean every year.
Registration is required to comment, but it's worth registering for all the other animal stories you're going to be commenting on in the future, right?
Some weeks the animal stories seem to tumble forth with far greater frequency...
I've missed posting on some, due to commitments with The Artivist Film Festival, but with so many articles in major news media these past few days you'll not want for reading material and letters to write after this post.
I'm particularly fond of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's October 31st piece at Common Dreams, From Cradle to Grave, in which she targets the considerations often missed by those busy patting themselves on the back for providing or eating "humane meat": That is, even organic, grass fed, "free range" animals live truncated lives, at the end of which they are trucked many miles to USDA-licensed slaughterhouses, where their demise is no better than that of any of the machine-reared beings with whom they share an identical fate.
With "compassionate carnivores" positioned as the next big market after organics, these points need to be raised ubiquitously, especially in response to compassionate people who've allowed mere window dressing to cloud their view of the issue.
Hat tip to reader for Christopher Jones for making sure we saw this.
In response to the numerous stories referred to YESTERDAY regarding the self-awareness studies on elephants at the Bronx Zoo, the editors of The New York Times have published a surprising editorial called Horton Sees an Image.
While much of the buzz surrounding these tests focused on how elephants joined the ranks of the self-aware, lifting them "above" most other animals, the editors of The New York Times argue
...what they really do is raise questions about the value we attribute to consciousness and our inevitably human definition of it. It is always us setting the rules.
How many tests set by elephants could we pass?
My jaw just about dropped to the floor when I read that. This sounds like something I'd hear when talking to one of my animal advocate friends, not the editorial board of The New York Times. Could it be that an editorial like this might persuade some people to look at animals differently?
There's no way to be sure, but the very existence of this editorial gives me hope. With an ending like this, how can it not?:
There is every reason to value other life-forms as much for their difference from us as for their similarity, and to act accordingly. That may be the only intelligence test worthy of the name.
They don't tell anyone what acting accordingly means, but the implication is that our treatment of animals is a sort of intelligence test, and one would imagine that the better we treat them, the better it reflects on us, and that's a sentiment I'm happy to share.
Please, please, please, please take a moment to write a letter to the editors of The New York Times, thanking them for this insightful, compassionate editorial, and ask them for more of the same going forward. Remember to keep your praise below 250 words, and to include your full name, contact number, city and state in order to be considered for publication.
Bob Barker, friend to Los Angeles Zoos' imprisoned elephants (and all animals), announced that he is finally retiring from the long-running game show The Price is Right, and plans to spend his time focusing on animal rights causes. Go, Bob!!!
Sticking with pachyderms for the moment, Deb posted a comment at an earlier post that I wanted to bring to your attention.
She tells us that In Defense of Animals is campaigning to have animal-friendly people sign a petition and send their comments to the USDA. Deadline is December 11, and you can find more information on how to help elephants at HelpElephants.com. Deb also points out that we can submit comments to USA Today here. December 11th sounds like a long time from now, but the weeks go by fast, so please start working on your letter today.
On to Japan, I've postednumeroustimes about the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji. Activists around the world have been working hard to force the issue into the limelight, where Japanese authorities least want to see it.
Yesterday, The Japan Times covered the story on the front page in an article by Genesis Award-winning writer Boyd Harnell, titled Dolphin kill dogged by mercury, activists.
As he did in his previous piece on the subject, Harnell looks unflinchingly at the horror of the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, but you must see this slaughter for yourselves to truly comprehend it:
Please write a letter to the editors of The Japan Times to support them for putting this issue on the front page, and to express your dismay/outrage/disgust at this cruel, barbaric slaughter, during which randomly-stabbed dolphins have been seen dying an excruciating, prolonged death.
Remember also that there's more you can do. If you care about animals, please never give your money to a business that exploits marine mammals for entertainment, and do your best to dissuade friends and family from doing so, either. Many marine animals currently captive around the United States were taken from the wild, which is where they really belong. Regrettably, animals sold live for entertainment are worth around $20,000, whereas dead dolphins are only worth about $600 each, which means that marine park demand is a major factor in the annual drive fisheries in Taiji, so boycotts could have a meaningful on this practice.
Speaking of slaughter, Willie Nelson -- "Special to CNN," heh-heh -- followed up an open letter to congress with a commentary encouraging Americans to contact their senators and ask them to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, and to consider adopting rescued horses.
Foie gras continues to receive frequent coverage, including this lengthy piece in the Milford Daily News that gives some time to PETA's opposition, but lends most of its column inches to the American Veterinary Medical Association and chefs who serve foie gras, both of whom come out strongly in favor of allowing ducks to be force fed, slaughtered, and cut up for their livers, "an ingredient people enjoy."
Not this person.
Finally, The Scotsman published a story taking officials to task for a 4.5 increase in animal testing over the last year, despite government assurances that the "controversial practice" would be reduced:
The figures also reveal that Scotland is carrying out a disproportionate amount of animal testing in the UK, with tests north of the border making up 14.1 per cent of the UK's 2.91 million procedures even though Scots make up only around 8 per cent of the total population.
And testing is rising in Scotland much more quickly than in the rest of the UK. Total British animal testing in 2005 was 2.91 million, up from 2.8 million the year before, an annual rise of only 1.4 per cent.
Lest people assume these animals are all "unimportant" species like rats, the article puts things into perspective:
Among the animals used in the research in Scotland were: 910 monkeys, 1,308 dogs, 5,294 sheep, 3,016 rabbits, 941 pigs, 69 horses. 267,960 mice, 49,284 rats, 2,944 guinea pigs and four cats. Tests were also conducted on 7,854 birds, 238 amphibians and 56,993 fish.
Sure the vast majority are rodents, but what makes them so undeserving of our compassion, and what about the dogs, cats, monkeys, horses and pigs, among others? Everyone needs to know what is happening to all these innocent animals caged to satisfy human curiosity in a speculative quest for financial gain... Oh, yeah, and tantalizing possibility that such research could somehow provide clues for curing life-threatening diseases (forgetting for a moment all the testing done on drugs for sex enhancers, cosmetics, and other vanities). Bear in mind that 11,048 of these tests in Scotland involved animals with a harmful genetic defect, and think about whether that's something an animal-friendly person would ever find acceptable.
The article provides a number of other details, including specifics as to why certain animals are used in research, as well as comments from a researcher and an activist that don't shed much new light on the subject. That said, the article certainly merits your attention, so I hope you'll check it out. It's important for animal lovers to learn as much as they can about animal experimentation, because it's ignorance that allows it to continue and even grow like this.
This Op-Ed complains about a recent piece that I objected to as well, in which a South African scientist named Paul Manger said that dolphins’ relatively large brains are due simply to preponderance of fatty glial cells, which supposedly indicated that the intelligence of dolphins was overrated. This flew in the face of all we know about dolphins, and Frans de Waal does a great job of countering that view:
If we skip the technicalities — such as that glial cells are not simply insulation, that they add connectivity to the brain, and that humans, too, have many more glial cells than neurons — the question remains why the prospect of animal intelligence sets off such controversy. Could it be that the huge size of the dolphin brain, which exceeds ours by 15 percent or more, threatens the human ego? Are we to ignore the billions and billions of neurons that dolphins do possess?
The goldfish remark reminded me of a common strategy of those who play down animal intelligence. They love to “demonstrate” remarkable cognitive feats in small-brained species: if a rat or pigeon can do it, it can’t be that special. Thus, some pigeons have been trained to use “symbolic communication” by pecking a key marked “thank you!” that delivered food to another pigeon. And they have also been conditioned to peck at their own bodies in front of a mirror, supporting the claim that they are “self-aware.”
Clearly, pigeons are trainable. But is this truly comparable to the actions of Presley, a dolphin at the New York Aquarium, who, without any rewards, reacted to being marked with paint by taking off at high speed to a distant part of his tank where a mirror was mounted? There he spun round and round, the way we do in a dressing room, appearing to check himself out.
de Waal gets to the heart of these discussions, asking why it is so upsetting to some people that animal and human intelligence can be so close, much less animal and human emotions:
Just saying that animals can learn from each other, and hence have rudimentary cultures, or that they can be jealous or empathic is taken by some as a personal affront. Accusations of anthropomorphism will fly, and we’ll be urged to be parsimonious in our explanations.
Despite our own irrational concerns, often by allegedly rational people, there is much logic in the notion that other species are highly intelligent, like us. After all, we're animals, too:
Is it so outlandish, from an evolutionary standpoint, to assume that if a large-brained mammal acts similarly to us under similar circumstances, the psychology behind its behavior is probably similar, too? This is true parsimony in the scientific sense, the idea that the simplest explanation is often the best. Those who resist this framework are in “anthropodenial” — they cling to unproven differences.
de Waal sketches several quick observations, representing only the tip of the iceberg. As I heard this weekend, with enough anecdotes, you end up with data:
There are tons of such observations, which is why most of us believe in dolphin intelligence — glia or no glia. It also explains why the slaughter of dolphins, as still occurs every year in Japan, arouses such strong emotions and controversy.
I'm glad the dolphin slaughter was referenced here. The more people can be made aware of it, especially in a context that convincingly conveys dolphin intelligence and emotion, the better.
It's great that The New York Times published two pieces in two days, and I think that deserves your attention for a couple of minutes of praise directed to the editor. As always, include your full name, address, and daytime phone number with your letter, and keep it short and to the point to give it a better shot at being published.
I haven't seen any media coverage of our Japan Dolphin Day protest on Wednesday. If anyone knows of any media protest footage or articles besides press releases, please get that info to me ASAP.
But it does look like the Japanese dolphin slaughter is starting to get more media attention, thanks to a consortium of scientists and wildlife officials that yesterday called on the Japanese government to end the practice:
When looking for footage of the protests today, I came across some dolphin slaughter videos. The first one looks pretty much raw, and appears to be the source of a photo I posted when originally bringing the slaughter to your attention. It's very short, and shows that indeed the water does get that red, and that the photo was not enhanced.
The second one appears to be a segment from Earthlings, a movie I watched before it was finalized and officially released, if I recall correctly, and I don't remember seeing it in that version. That said, it's a very difficult and painful sit through, but will drive the cruelty of animal exploitation home to anyone you show it to.
Halfway through this roughly 3-minute segment, I started tearing up. No still photos can portray how awful this slaughter truly is. You owe it to yourself and the dolphins to see this video, to know why it's important that this slaughter is ended.
The next story I want to touch on briefly was brought to my attention by Jeff Bryant, who first contacted me about the dolphin slaughter. The article reveals a disturbing mindset toward animals:
In it we learn that a writer described in a recent essay how she did not sterilize the three female cats she kept as pets, and described "hurling the newborn kittens over a cliff" as soon as they were born. That's very ancient Greece of her, but we don't go for that kind of cruelty anymore.
She justifies this barbarous action by comparing the sterilization of animals with the oppression of humans and that she can't bear to remove their "life energy and vitality." But it's okay to toss kittens over a cliff? Am I the only one that can't follow her logic?
Finally comes some happy news. Despite the continued use of bear bile for medicinal purposes in Vietnam, Animals Asia has reached an agreement with Vietnam's Forest Protection Department (FPD) to build a bear rescue center in a national park outside Hanoi. According to an FPD official, the center will open in January 2007:
The official, who requested anonymity for procedural reasons, says the center will give the bears check-ups and release the healthy ones into protected forests. The more fragile animals will be taken care of for life.
Unfortunately, this is only a glimmer of hope for the bears. According to Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia, the center's reach will be limited:
The ultimate aim of the project, at least, is to rescue 200 bears, although with 4,000 bears still in the country on these horrible farms, it's quite a challenge.
Our Los Angeles Japan Dolphin Day protest was a bit smaller than I was hoping for, with somewhere around two dozen or so people holding up signs and banners when I arrived, about 30 minutes late after my hour drive back down from Animal Acres. But the media was already there, as was environmental activist/actor Ed Begley, Jr., Last Chance for Animals' Chris DeRose, and numerous dedicated activists responding to LCA's and In Defense of Animals' calls to local activists for help in staging the protest.
The demo was quiet, respectful, and friendly with passersby on their way to and from lunch. It was a very uneventful protest in that regard, and for that I am thankful. I'm not thrilled with the banner you see in the photo above, but was glad for LCA and IDA putting together so many materials to hand out, from beautiful and thorough brochures to quick flyers urging readers to write the Japanese consulate, as well as tools like scores of signs like the one you see me holding and the blow-up dolphins with red paint on them. Those were a bit graphic, perhaps, but that's what we're dealing with when it comes to this slaughter, and the fact that a couple of people asked if they could have them says something... I think. Ultimately it was the comparison to Pearl Harbor I could have done without. Dramatic attention-getter, I know, but I don't think this issue needs activists to resort to those sorts of tactics when the reality is brutal enough in its own right.
I had a number of people come up to ask me why we were there (they didn't know the consulate was inside), a few people actually came up to me and asked for flyers, and a couple of of others let me know they were glad we were protesting. I sometimes wonder if that's as far as it goes for them. As if encouraging us is enough (not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, seriously). I'm glad people are morally supportive, I'm glad the media was there, and I hope they make some mention to a wider audience, but we'd also like for people who saw these photos and read about the drive fisheries to write to the Japanese consulate and to their own representatives demanding something be done about this barbaric annual slaughter.
Please read my original post on Japan Dolphin Day for information about where to send your letter, and more background information so you know what you're writing about. This hideous slaughter must end.
As an addendum, I'd suggest trying a demo out. If you're used to seeing demonstrations full of conflict, I can understand your reticence, but they're not all like that. If you object to any element of a protest, you can always leave. But by showing up, you give the protest a chance to gain attention and canvas the area with literature more effectively. If you never go, you're leaving the fate of the animals up to a small band of dedicated animal-friendly people. Without you, those numbers won't go up, and popular support for the animals will remain silent. Silence = Death.
I'm off momentarily to help out with the humane education of 3rd graders at Animal Acres this morning, followed by the international day of protest, Japan Dolphin Day, in downtown L.A in front of the Japanese Consulate located at 350 S. Grand Ave., Suite 1700, Los Angeles, CA 90071. Maybe I'll see some of you local readers there!
UPDATE: Protests on the other side of the world have already been covered, though I'm hoping we get a better turnout than two dozen. No matter. They got some much-needed news reportage, and that is our goal. Please read my JDD link above and find the protest nearest you today.
The Japanese dolphin slaughter and tomorrow's international day of protest against it are receiving a tiny bit of media attention, here from the Daily Mail.
You can read more about the slaughter, the protest, and how you can get involved tomorrow here. I also ask that you contact your local media to encourage them to cover the event.
Today the SundayMirror.co.ukvividly portrayed Japan's dolphin slaughter, which is all but invisible just about everywhere else. Remember that Japan Dolphin Day is this Wednesday, and your help is needed to raise awareness of this sad, sorry practice. For more information, please visit my previous detailed post on the international day of protest.
And let's thank Gary Anderson and the Sunday Mirror for being the rare sort that actually found the situation important enough for their readers to know about. If your letter to the editor is published, it could increase the likelihood that at least a few more people who didn't see this original story might become aware of the problem and be outraged by it.
It might not hurt to write your local papers and chide them for not carrying this important story, and perhaps they will even consider covering a protest in your area on Wednesday.
I've covered marine mammal issues here at AAFL before, and have received a fair share of support and criticism (amazingly) for that coverage, but one issue it seems many of us are neglecting -- including organizations with a marine mammal focus -- is the Japanese dolphin slaughter.
Obviously there's only so much time and money to go around to protect the animals of the world, but precious little is allocated to stopping the slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in Japan. Last year's cull triggered "Japan Dolphin Day" demonstrations in 28 countries, but the protests went almost entirely unreported in that country.
The cull, which starts in October and goes on for about six months, is officially condoned as a traditional cultural practice, and is described by Taiji fishermen as "pest control," though no studies have shown that dolphins are any more responsible than humans for depleting fish in the area. Government quotas for the 2005/2006 season allowed for the slaughter of more than 21,000 small cetaceans, the highest in the world
Japan Dolphin Day is geared toward shedding light around the world on this little-known slaughter in an attempt to generate international condemnation. With Japan's recent success at the IWC this year -- during which they barely pulled off a majority vote stating that the whaling ban was no longer necessary -- marine mammals need our attention if they are to survive ever-larger slaughters.
The protest is not being held under the umbrella of any one group, but is being coordinated in large part by One Voice's Ric O'Barry, a former dolphin trainer from the popular TV series "Flipper" who changed his views on cetaceans in captivity after one of the dolphins that portrayed Flipper died in his arms. As a trainer, O'Barry observed that dolphins were not only highly intelligent, but also self-aware, much like gorillas and humans, recognizing themselves in the reflection of a mirror or on TV.
To fully appreciate this self-awareness is to experience true revulsion at the inhumane way in which these extremely complex, social, and playful mammals are killed. To cull large amounts of dolphins at once, Taiji fishermen take motorized boats out to locate pods of dolphins, which they drive into a narrow cove by banging on long steel poles plunged into the water. Once corraled into the dead-end, the dolphins are trapped by nets strung across the mouth of the cove. After a day of rest to supposedly improve the quality of the meat ripped from their bodies, they are herded into another cove nearby for the slaughter. Observers from One Voice and Sea Shepherd have reported seeing wounded dolphins writhe in pain for almost six minutes before expiring.
The killing cove in Hatagiri Bay at Taiji is hidden between two mountains. According to O'Barry, a gigantic tarp strung over the shoreline cuts off the view from land, and paths leading to the cove are chained off with signs reading "No Trespassing!" and "Keep Out, Danger!"
Despite attempts by fishermen and the government to discourage outsiders from witnessing or protesting the slaughter, Ric O'Barry has personally recorded footage of freshly killed dolphins being lifted onto a pier in the harbor in the traditional whaling town of Taiji. Other recent footage shows dolphins thrashing about wildly as they try to escape, the water growing red around them. If it wasn't for this smuggled footage no one outside Taiji would be able to see this barbaric slaughter for what it is.
Thanks almost entirely to these types efforts by concerned activists, members of the U.S. government have been made aware of the issue, and have chosen to act. In April of 2005, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) -- along with co-sponsors Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD), and Carl Levin (D-MI) -- introduced Senate Resolution 99, "Expressing the sense of the Senate to condemn the inhumane and unnecessary slaughter of small cetaceans . . . in certain nations." The resolution, currently referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, describes how, "each year tens of thousands of small cetaceans are herded into small coves in certain nations, are slaughtered with spears and knives, and die as a result of blood loss and hemorrhagic shock," condemns the slaughter of small cetaceans in these drive fisheries, calls for their end, and recommends that the United States "advocate for clarification that the mandate of the International Whaling Commission includes small cetaceans," among other resolutions. If you have an in on the Committee on Foreign Relations, now might be a good time to lean on them to address S. Res. 99.
One of the concerns addressed by S. Res. 99 is that much of the meat is processed for human consumption, despite the dangerously high levels of mercury present in dolphins from being so high up the ocean's food chain.
In a 2000-2003 joint survey of small cetacean food products sold in Japan published in 2005, Daichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka, Kyushu, and the School of Biological Sciences in Auckland, New Zealand found that all dolphin food products "exceeded the provisional permitted levels of 0.4 micrograms per wet gram for total mercury and 0.3 micrograms per wet gram for methyl mercury (a particularly dangerous form of mercury) set by the Japanese government. The highest level of methyl mercury was about 26 micrograms per wet gram in a food sample from a striped dolphin, 87 times higher than the permitted level."
Of course, not all the captured dolphins are slaughtered for their meat. After all, there's not enough of a demand to support such an industry. But every year, an unknown number of healthy young specimens are selected and removed from the killing coves to be sold at up to $40,000 each into the international dolphin captivity industry, for use in aquariums, dolphinariums or for swim-with-dolphin programs. If children knew how the dolphins ended up in those places, and that they are typically kept hungry in order to perform for food, they would most certainly not approve.
While selling dolphins into captivity is a lucrative business, it's possible that fishermen could make even more money leaving dolphins in their natural habitat. At least one former dolphin hunter in Futo has switched from hunting dolphins to offering 'dolphin watch' tours. Thousands of tourists have taken these tours, paying 4,000 yen each for the pleasure of seeing dolphins in the wild.
With your support, there could be more success stories like this.
Organizers from One Voice are calling for another global day of protest on Wednesday, September 20th. Overwhelming support for Japan Dolphin Day could drag these issue out of the shadows and into the light, where it belongs, despite opposition from Japanese officials.
All are asked to participate: Animal welfare groups, musicians and bands, environmentalists, dolphin trainers, bloggers, schools, ordinary citizens... everyone. Simply show up for a couple of hours or more with all of your friends in front of any Japanese embassy or consulate office in the United States (or outside the U.S.), starting at about noon and protest the slaughter. If you have any connections with the media, or special talents for posters, music, street theatre or anything, put them to good use. You can also call or write Japanese officials - or do all three: show up, call them, and send a protest letter. Make sure your voice is heard.
You may want to check with your local organization for more precise information about protests in your area. While Japan Dolphin Day will not take place under the umbrella of any one group, many organizations have pledged to give the dolphins a few hours of their time on September 20th (as well as to ask their families, friends and members to show up), including:
Animalisti Italiani Onlus - Rome Animal Voices Radio - Toronto Animal Welfare Institute - Washington DC Animal Rights Hawaii - Waikiki Animanaturalis - Barcelona/Mexico City Begley's Best - Los Angeles Blue Voice - San Francisco Born Free Foundation - London British Divers Marine Life Rescue - London Calgary Animal Rights Coalition - Calgary Compassion in Action -Calgary Campaign Whale - London Captive Animals Protection Society - London Care for the Wild - London Cetacea Defence - London Cetacean Society International - New York COMARINO - Mexico City Committee for a Dolphinarium-free Belgium - Brussels Dolphin Care UK - London Dolphin Project - Miami Djurrsttsalliansen - Stockholm Earth Island Institute - San Francisco EDEV - Den Haag Environmental Investigation Agency - London Friends of Dolphins - Washington DC Global Ocean - London GAIA - Brussels HSUS/HSI - Washington DC In Defense of Animals - San Francisco/Seattle International Animal Rescue - London Kuroshio - Taipei Last Chance for Animals - Los Angeles Life Conservationist Association - Taipei Marine Connection - London Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition - Boston No Whales In Captivity - Vancouver Nomades des Oceans - Paris NY Whale and Dolphin Action League - New York One Voice - Paris Orca Network - Seattle Rattle the Cage Productions - Miami Reearth - Nassau Responsible Animal Care Society - Vancouver Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - Den Haag/Calgary VictoriaDreamSpace -Vancouver WDCS - London/Washington DC WSPA - London/Boston Zoocheck - Toronto
Join the list!
If you're able, you may want to pack your bags and head for Japan to do something more about the problem. The Japanese whalers have told activists that they do not want westerners witnessing the dolphin slaughter or the related dolphin captures. You can give them exactly what they don't want, though this is definitely not recommend for everyone; activists have been jailed and have had equipment confiscated when attempting to capture footage and release dolphins awaiting slaughter.
Note: This entry relies heavily on 'Secret' dolphin slaughter defies protests, a November 2005 International Genesis Award-winning article by Boyd Harnell writing forThe Japan Times.
Japan Dolphin Day Protest - L.A. Report
