Annual Dolphin Slaughter At A Head Campaign Underway to End it

[Misanthrope 0]

Apparently Japan’s annual dolphin bloodbath is underway and at it's cruel climax. Every year, the town of Taiji engages in the most heinous act I can personally imagine. They brutally slaughter roughly 26,000 cetaceans, among them dolphins and small whales. International outcry has curtailed the yearly kill to one secluded location, but it’s not secluded enough to keep protesters and video cameras at bay.

A campaign is underway to end what is considered the largest annual dolphin slaughter in the world once and for all. Dolphin killers – you can run, but you can’t hide!

Edited March 29, 2007 by Misanthrope (see edit history)

[Watermonkey 0]

Several times in history, according to the following linked BBC article, whales have been hunted to the very brink of extinction. Recently, according to that article, a species of dolphin has been counted at 25 or so individuals. I don't even know if this small a population has enough genetic diversity to recover the species. I read at another web site in doing a little research on this topic that the Japanese don't even really like dolphin meat that much, that their insistence to continue their alleged "whale research" that involves killing many of the animals is more due to pride or stubbornness then actual need, either real or perceived. It's way past time the whole world spoke with one voice to these murderers: "It's no longer acceptable for you or anyone to kill cetaceans for any reason!" Anyone who continues this practice should face the court on a first degree murder rap. It can very easily be argued that, but for their continued naiveté , these amazing creatures are far superior to humans in intelligence and more than make up for their lack of digits or tools in their cognitive abilities. If we could just figure out their many diverse languages, I think they could teach us much about our world and each other. They're recognized as sentient beings (short quote from link follows) who "name" their children just as humans and some other animals do.

There is a solid foundation of scientific evidence indicating that dolphins possess the mental and emotional capacities for pain and suffering on a par with great apes and humans. Futhermore, dolphins have social traditions and cultures, complex interdependent relationships, and strong family ties all of which are susceptible to disruption or even dissolution in the drives.
"The scientific evidence is abundantly clear - the Japanese dolphin hunts are an assault on intelligent, sentient, and emotional beings with brains that should make us all stop and think," Marino said.

The hunts also indiscriminately target all species of cetacean. Bottlenose dolphins make up the bulk of the annual take, but the hunts also kill striped dolphins, spotted dolphins, Risso's dolphins, false killer whales, and short-finned pilot whales. Several of these species are considered threatened by the IUCN-World Conservation Union.

When we begin to see that all sentient beings should be afforded the same universal rights that we've seen fit to bestow upon ourselves we'll find ourselves a notch higher on the spiritual evolutionary ladder. At the end of the day, some of us consider this to be the ultimate meaning of life. Tears I shed for no man, but I weep an eternity to the sea.
Edited March 30, 2007 by Watermonkey (see edit history)