This is a 'traditional' Japanese event that has only recently come to my attention.
First off, I am more-or-less an ecology nut, I'm a member of Greenpeace, (but only because I was cornered by an attractive young hippy with a clipboard and a sign up sheet. I signed up thinking it'd be easy to drop out later,) but my facts here are 100% true and not exaggerated at all for effect.
Annually in a lot of Japanese fishing communities, namely Taiji and Futo there is a "Dolphin Drive" in which pods of Dolphins are driven int shallow water and killed with knives and clubs. Generally the ones not hposted out of the water and dragged away to be slaughtered die of blood loss in the water. Fot most others, a rope is tied around their tails and they are hoisted out of the water. As Dolphins weigh approximately 360 KG out of the water, this process literally rips their backbones apart. This of course does not kill them, and they are dragged to makeshift tents/slaughterhouses to suffocate or be bled to death. The very few survivors left in the bloody shallows are bought by marine parks and zoos.
This had been said as a traditional and culteral activity by the Japanese officials. It is true that the Japanese hunted marine mammals in modest numbers in the past, and after he economic devistation after WWII, the occupying US forces suggested that they again hunted marine mammals for food. This eventually turned into the commercial hunting of marine mammals.
The 'tradition' argument is very poor on these grounds, and even if it is considered tradition, it's a brutal one which people should get over. It has no benefit to anyone as Dolphin meat is generally disliked by the Japanese, it is mostly used in fertilizer and pet food. There is not one Japanese resteraunt with Dolphin meat on the menu.
The fact remains that the process used is exptreamly cruel - most likely it is the most inhumane thing on the whole planet. Most people would argue that killing animals with the proven intelligence and social sructure of Dolphins is wrong no matter how one goes about it.
I have a video here narrated by Joaquin Phoenix which shows some pretty graphic images of this process, do not watch if you don't want to, it is pretty nasty.
For more information, check out this site.
First off, I am more-or-less an ecology nut, I'm a member of Greenpeace, (but only because I was cornered by an attractive young hippy with a clipboard and a sign up sheet. I signed up thinking it'd be easy to drop out later,) but my facts here are 100% true and not exaggerated at all for effect.
Annually in a lot of Japanese fishing communities, namely Taiji and Futo there is a "Dolphin Drive" in which pods of Dolphins are driven int shallow water and killed with knives and clubs. Generally the ones not hposted out of the water and dragged away to be slaughtered die of blood loss in the water. Fot most others, a rope is tied around their tails and they are hoisted out of the water. As Dolphins weigh approximately 360 KG out of the water, this process literally rips their backbones apart. This of course does not kill them, and they are dragged to makeshift tents/slaughterhouses to suffocate or be bled to death. The very few survivors left in the bloody shallows are bought by marine parks and zoos.
This had been said as a traditional and culteral activity by the Japanese officials. It is true that the Japanese hunted marine mammals in modest numbers in the past, and after he economic devistation after WWII, the occupying US forces suggested that they again hunted marine mammals for food. This eventually turned into the commercial hunting of marine mammals.
The 'tradition' argument is very poor on these grounds, and even if it is considered tradition, it's a brutal one which people should get over. It has no benefit to anyone as Dolphin meat is generally disliked by the Japanese, it is mostly used in fertilizer and pet food. There is not one Japanese resteraunt with Dolphin meat on the menu.
The fact remains that the process used is exptreamly cruel - most likely it is the most inhumane thing on the whole planet. Most people would argue that killing animals with the proven intelligence and social sructure of Dolphins is wrong no matter how one goes about it.
I have a video here narrated by Joaquin Phoenix which shows some pretty graphic images of this process, do not watch if you don't want to, it is pretty nasty.
For more information, check out this site.
[Blinking eyes thing]
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
