A wise old Japanese man recently told me , “Human is king of the land. Whale and dolphin are king of the sea. We must work to promote peace between our kingdoms”.
Today, a hand-full of men are once again waging war against a defenseless kingdom.
This morning we witnessed what happens to the “fortunate” dolphins who are not slaughtered by the hunters of Taiji. We saw trainers, mostly women selecting specimens to be taken out of their natural environment and into captivity for the remainder of their lives. Until yesterday morning, these creatures had spent that last few YEARS in the open ocean, unencumbered by barriers in a limitless three-dimensional space where they could swim for miles and miles. They grew up around their friends and family members, feeding, playing, starting families, living life.
But today, those families are being ripped apart where brothers and sisters are separated, parents from children, mothers from fathers. The trainers seem oblivious to the notion that they are devastating these close social bonds. As they cart away the captives, they are seen pouring water onto them as if they are somehow helping them. The trainers are often smiling, laughing, maybe even believing that what they are doing is good for the dolphins. But these wild animals have no interest in having names or living in swimming pools and they will only perform tricks for us if they know their food supply depends on it.
This heinous act continues because people pay money to marine parks (and because Japan allows the mis-labeling of food products). People around the world visit live-animal shows because they don’t know the truth about where these animals come from and how they’re captured. It’s your job to spread the word about the truth! Not just to your friends, but to people standing in live at entertainment aquariums. Even those that utilize “captive breeding programs” are culpable for keeping this industry alive — almost as much as the people who give them money. The people of Japan have allowed Taiji’s fishermen to get away with murder. We saw it today. We saw it last week. We see it every year. It may take generations to win the war that could save our oceans, but within our lifetimes we can at least win this battle against the dolphin hunters.
It’s not enough to set an example by not participating… we all must work to shut this industry down today!
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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” -Mahatma Gandhi
Knowledge of Japan’s shameful activity spreads as the world is watching the Cove Guardian blogs posts and photo and video reports on the fate of the Taiji captured dolphins. Across the globe more and more people find out about this shameful behavior every day and are horrified that this practice continues into the 21st Century. This is not preserving culture. It is evil killing sentient creatures and selling a few into captivity for money. Shameful behavior by men who should know better condoned by a country that has no excuse for allowing it. Pride and stubbornness will be their downfall. This will end.
Thank you Taiji Cove Guardians for being there and making public record the inhumane behavior being carried out in that beautiful cove.
REMEMBER ~ Please do not support the continuation of this inhumane activity by paying to see dolphin shows or paying to swim with captive dolphins.
Well said Rex–that’s why I wrote my book–to try to wake up people who show their “love of dolphins” by supporting marine parks and captive dolphin-swim parks. There are still A LOT of people out there doing everything they can to deny their part in this equation, and the industry helps them do this. We should make everyone we know watch the Cove for starters…
keep up the awesome work–miss you guys.
xoleah
Just wanted to drop a line and let you know, myself and a few other friends of mine have been following your blog and twitter updates, and although we are not with you physically, we are with you in spirit. We cannot let this inhumane slaughter last another season, and we wish we could end it today. We know that you have had a difficult road, watching all of this in person, but we thank you for suffering through it all so that the world knows what is really happening in Taiji. Thank you for being so brave, and keep up the fantastic work. We support the dolphins and whales, and we support those who protect these fantastic creatures 120%.