The hell with tradition!

Dolphin and whale hunting has been a Japanese occupation for centuries. Large Japanese whaling vessels sail out to the Antarctic’s to hunt and kill whales under the label of science. Things have been improved a lot over the last years; however, what we want is a complete end of global cetaceans killing.
About half a day from Tokyo and only accessible via a coastal road, Taiji escaped the eyes of animal rights activists for years. But internet and modern cheap transportation put an end to the secret.  Now about 26 dolphin killers, a bunch of locals who also make profit out of it and some bow tie business man stand against a group of people that’s growing by the minute. Thanks to Rick O’Barry, and many others after him the world starts to realise what’s going on.

The fishermen consider dolphins as just big fish, like tuna. They find it strange that we believe it cruel and can’t except to hear that dolphins are special, for them it’s just food as any other. It’s a tradition; they have been eating dolphin and whale meat for generations.
Than, if people get questioned about it, different facts are brought to daylight:

Dolphin meat (picture hypenc.com)

“I hate cutting up dolphin,” says Motohata Toshihiro, who runs a nearby whale-meat shop. “The stink stays on you for days, even after several baths.”
“I don’t like the taste of dolphin because it smells,” says 9-year-old Utani Rui, a Taiji kid. “I prefer whale.”
Inside the museum, out-of-towners are often stunned to learn of the local tradition. “I’m shocked,” says Shibuya Keiko from Osaka. “I couldn’t imagine eating dolphin. They’re too cute.”

O’Barry found out that it’s no longer about tradition, he said: “It’s pest-control; they’re over-fishing and want to kill the competition for the fish. That’s unacceptable. These animals don’t have Japanese passports, they belong to the world. They’re just trying to get around this town and these 26 guys.” He calls the town ‘schizophrenic.’ “It’s as pretty as a 1950s postcard and the people are so friendly, but this secret genocide takes place every year.”

The fact remains that still people find it normal to hunt and slaughter free, intelligent and beautiful animals. What’s in a human’s mind if you can go to watch a dolphin perform a show and get the possibility to eat dolphin meat when watching it? It’s far beyond sanity if you ask me.
The people of this town don’t realise that they are hated by the world for the killing that takes place here, it has been a cover-up for decades and it’s still a cover-up today.

In a world that has to deal with wars, greed and environmental destruction, the fate of a few thousand animals might seem not such a big deal, but activists that stand up to this have their reasons.
“The dolphin hunt is a symbol of our utilitarian view of nature,” says O’Barry. “That we can use and abuse the sea. I honestly believe when the world finds out about this it will be abolished. It can’t possibly survive the light of day.”

Today the world starts to find out about it!
Please let everybody know, this can not survive, we have to bring it to an end!

(Quotes taken out of an article that appeared in The Independent on Saturday January 6, 2006)