You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy
Slaughtering Dolphins!
I shouldn’t have to say another word.
That is crazy with a Capitol C!
Just the the thought of Slaughtering Dolphins sounds heinous. It’s like clubbing baby seals, or making toddlers smoke pot to watch them fall down. It’s like tying fire crackers to the cat’s tail or throwing lawn darts at a bunny.
It’s the focus of an intense and disturbing film called the Cove. It’s about this out of the way place where Dolphins are trapped then slaughtered. The film makers were not welcomed by the people of the island. The images are so grotesque and so hard to stomach that it took great bravery to obtain the footage and bring it to the world.
Islanders claim the footage is sensationalized. I’m not so sure.
According to CNN: A U.S. film is now putting a Japanese town on the defensive for what it calls dolphin slaughter.
According to the report:
‘The Cove’ offers a rare look at the kills in Taiji, which sought to keep them off limits. Some residents are unmoved by global outrage over the bloody practice. ‘We are who we are,’ one says.
It’s no secret that our Japanese friends love fish. If it swims in the sea, the Japanese will eat it.
The Japanese are famous for their long line fishing practices. They saturate the oceans and criss cross thousands of miles with their nets and hooks catching anything that swims. Their floating canneries, the size of air craft carriers, pull in the long lines, and they process the fish they catch while still at sea.
The problem is the Japanese only seek certain kinds of fish, so the millions of other fish caught in the long lines are discarded. It’s like a flotilla of death.
So it should come as no surprise that the Japanese, despite world wide protest, would continue to catch dolphins.
According to CNN: The Japanese kill about 20,000 dolphins a year, most harpooned in the open sea.
What makes the film so abhorrent is that it happens near land where filmmakers like those with the Cove had the cajones to document it.
According to CNN: Taiji is the only place where the creatures are herded to shore and then killed. Perhaps that is what makes the report so insidious.
The fisherman lead the dolphins into the aqua-slaughter-house like a farmer would butcher a pig.
If you have ever seen a slaughter house work, it’s tough to stomach. The animals almost always fight as they are funneled into the death zone. They grunt and squirm and then WHAM the blade severs their necks. Their squealing heads go one way while they’re struggling bodies go the other.
Pigs are one thing. Smiley faced dolphins another.
On the island, the practice is mysterious and unknown. It’s like a secret society. It’s like a tree that falls in the woods. If no one sees it fall, did it really fall?
It’s the same for slaughtering Dolphins. If you crush a dolphin’s skull and no one knows you are doing it, does it really matter?
YES IT DOES.
It’s like luring a puppy into a box with a Milk Bone. Once the frisky little guy crawls into the trap, the stick is pulled and the cage snaps shut. The little puppy yelps for help, and cries for a while. And then, when no one is watching, the great puppy hunters crack open the puppy’s melon with a hammer. They only want the puppy brains, so this brave band of puppy hunters scoop out the puppy skull and serve it as a delicacy. The rest of the puppy is discarded in a bloody pile of puppy carcasses. This is what the Japanese are doing.
According to the report: Shigeki Takaya, an official with the Fisheries Ministry, says: “Most reporters tell one side of the story,” he said. “They are prejudiced, so I usually don’t comment on this. We have to respect our own culture. But why do you only focus on Taiji? “We are not the only nation that kills dolphins,” he said, pointing out that Canada, the Faeroe Islands and Denmark also hunt several species of dolphin. “Why not report about that?”
“This is not an evil town. Nice people live here,” he said. “But we are not going to stop this practice. We are who we are.”
No you are not evil, sir. Just different. Maybe the way Americans inhale hamburgers insults the people of India who value cows as sacred.
I can see the parallel here. The problem is, I never get the impression that cows are all that bright. I don’t imagine that they are actually communicating with each other, using a high pitched moo that resonates through the country side with telepathic brilliance. But that is what Dolphins do.
These regal creatures actually work for the Navy doing secret Navy stuff because, one, these these animals are extremely bright, and two, they swim quite well.
I have seen reports where the clicks and pitches of a dolphin can travel miles through the water and can be deciphered by other dolphins. It’s like texting for fish.
I never get the impression that cows were put on this planet by an alien race, or that cows have bigger brains than humans, or that cows, if they had opposable thumbs would actually slaughter us, eat us, and look at us standing naked in pastures.
Dolphins however are something special. That is why they never made a TV show about a cow
and called it Elsie. People don’t pay good money to fly to the Bahamas and swim with cows. It’s just not the same.
So do I think slaughtering the dolphin is crazy? You bet I do. And anything that can be done to stop it is OK by me.
I appreciate the bravery by the Cove’s film crew to broadcast a message to the world that should be known, and at least discussed.
And that my friends is crazy!