Even if you do not follow animal activists and vegan news blogs, you may have heard some scandal over the dolphin hunting in Taiji, Japan. News coverage has leaked to some major networks and the outrage is spreading.
A little back story:
Taiji fisherman have been hunting, fishing, and whaling since the early 12th century. Since the early 17th century, there has been a commercial industry for it. Being so heavily surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, it is no wonder that Japanese traditions have been oriented around the ocean. Traditionally, hunting begins in September and lasts until April. Men would go out to spot a pod of dolphins and when spotted, they would slice the neck of all the dolphins, causing exsanguination, or blood loss, to end their lives. This method was eventually banned so the hunters moved to a different method. They would lower one end of a steel pipe into the water. Using a hammer or mallet, the fishermen would clash and clang the pipe in order to make loud, irritating sounds spread in the water; this alarms and agitates the dolphins. Swimming away from the noises, the men strategically cause a ruckus to drive the dolphins closer to the coastline. At the coastline, other fishermen are waiting with nets to capture the pod. As soon as the dolphins are close enough, they are ensnared and tangled in a net and left overnight to calm down. This is their last night alive. In the morning, the men would pull the dolphins out one by one to slaughtered by shoving a metal pin through the neck and brain stem of the dolphins, dying within seconds. Numerous papers and reports have confessed that this method of slaughter would never be tolerated in the western world, even in the most cruel slaughterhouses. In 1878, a group of fisherman was trying to slaughter a large whale. The whale was very powerful and resisted, pulling many fisherman out of the water; about one hundred men were killed in this incident. Any loss of life is just that, a loss. I wish that humans would not die from animals just as much as I wish that animals would stop dying at the hands of humans.
Dolphins are sentient, emotional creatures
In Taiji, there is a whale museum which collects different artifacts exhibiting ancient whaling techniques as well skeletal displays of numerous whale species. They have a live tank which is small in size that holds many whales and dolphins. One particular dolphin "living" in the tank is named Angel. She is albino. She was taken from her pod. Her family was slaughtered. She is forced to swim back and forth because the tank is not wide enough for a single dolphin to enjoy a good swim, let alone many dolphins to live together peacefully. Anonymous footage has shown that the other dolphins bully her and push her around. Dolphins are emotional. If a dolphin mother has lost a child, reports have shown that she will nudge her child to the surface to try to revive the passed creature. Angel has been seen to be an outcast and thus reclusive.
This is only the beginning. I am going to watch the film "The Cove" to learn more about this practice and I will create another post following up.
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| Yes, that is blood. |
Resources:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888705.2013.768925
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_dolphin_drive_hunt
- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140202-dolphins-taiji-japan-whales-marine-animal-altruism-science/?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_us_se_c1#
- http://savejapandolphins.org/blog/post/we-remember-angel
- https://www.thedodo.com/undercover-footage-captures-wh-458743097.html
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