Taiji, Japan – In an
annual display of absolute barbarism, the infamous dolphin slaughter in Taiji,
Japan kicked off its yearly massacre of dolphins and whales last week.
Founder of The Dolphin
Project and star of the 2009 documentary film “The Cove,” Ric O’Barry was on
scene to witness the bloodbath once again.
Even after years of
witnessing the most heinous acts, Barry was left reeling from witnessing the
wanton extermination of such intelligent life forms.
The Taiji hunt lasts
for six months, killing or capturing up to a quota of 1,873 animals this season
alone. The annual slaughter continues to cause international outrage from
animal rights advocates.
In an effort to put
pressure on the Japanese government to end the hunts, in 2010 conservation
organization Sea Shepherd began sending “Cove Guardians” to document and record
the slaughter.
According to a report
by The Dodo:
Each year, 20,000
dolphins are slaughtered in Japan, hundreds of them in the Taiji hunt alone.
The few who survive the blood-red waters are sold into captivity, fated to
spend the rest of their lives cut off from family and performing at zoos and
marine parks.
Some have attempted to
justify the brutality using claims of cultural heritage and tradition. However,
the mass killing, using dolphin drives, have only recently become a common
occurrence.
The reality of the
Taiji hunt is not an overarching cultural tradition, but rather a small group
of local men generating large amounts of revenue from the murder of this
extremely intelligent, and self-aware being.
Watch this tragic
video, of a Risso dolphin struggling to save itself from the killing field.
Witnessing the suffering of this remarkably intelligent animal is enough to
spark outrage. The dolphin literally throws itself at O’Barry, in an attempt to
escape being killed.
“I will be arrested
immediately,” he says. “The police are all over the place.”
Activists are only
allowed to witness the hunt, with any interference resulting in immediate
arrest, and a potentially lengthy prison sentence.
“This is anguish,”
O’Barry said. “[He’s] panic-stricken on the rocks, and I am heartbroken that I
can’t get in the water and help him away from … he’s tearing his skin up. This
is awful. That dolphin’s not going to make it. He’s given up.”
Shortly after the
dolphin sinks to the bottom of the water, then another boat pulls with a man in
a full scuba suit.
“They’re sending over a
diver,” O’Barry says. “Probably with a knife to take him out.”
Please share this video
if you want to see the killing of these amazing creatures come to an end!
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