Japan Dolphin Slaughter Kills Hundreds in Taiji


B. McPherson
This may be a Japanese tradition but it is not civilized behavior.
An estimated 250 dolphins have been slaughtered in “The Cove”. For four days dolphins have been herded into the small bay outside of Taiji Japan. Those looking for dolphins for the captive market have now had their pick and the rest are being slaughtered. The favoured method is to jam a sharp spike into their blowhole to sever their spinal cord or at least, cause them to drown in their blood. Sea Shepherd Society has outed this barbaric practice since 2003 but has been unable to stop it. Their web site gives graphic detail of the bloody destruction of families. I was struck by the fate of an albino calf at the hands of the dolphin slavers who grabbed the youngster for selling to an amusement park.
There is widespread speculation that the mother of the albino calf committed suicide after her baby was violently taken from her. Our volunteer Cove Guardians documented and witnessed the grieving mother repeatedly spy-hopping, looking for her calf, before lowering herself into the water, never to resurface. Sea Shepherd Society 
The lucky dolphins in the Cove are killed and chopped into market sized pieces for sale at the meat markets of Japan. Others are sold into slavery in dubious conditions throughout the world and the babies too small to be worth killing or capture are driven back out to sea to die of starvation or the jaws of predators.

For those of us who eat a little canned tuna and insist on “Dolphin Safe” tuna, it is horrifying to witness such blatant disregard for these intelligent, friendly animals. Thinking people will avoid exposing their children to shows featuring dolphins who have been so cruelly treated.

It is cold comfort to know that the villains are slowly poisoning themselves by eating the flesh of the dead dolphins.

The concentrations of pollutants in whales and dolphins is not only sufficient to demand an immediately end to their consumption by humans - and thus their killing in the first place. It is also an indication of the ever increasing pollution of the oceans. It is a tragic irony that the arguement that we not kill dolphins and whales includes the fact that we have contaminated the seas to such an extent that these creatures are dangerous to eat.  BlueVoice


You can watch the tragedy unfolding on the Sea Shepherd site at:  http://livestream.seashepherd.org.
Location: Taiji, Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

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