This is another blog for the natural world, and for creatures that are perhaps some of the most intelligent on this planet. If we do not become a voice for them, I'm afraid they will be silenced forever. And I'm afraid that the future generations will never experience much of what we can still experience today, despite the precariousness of their survival.
Have you seen the documentary "The Cove"? I just watched it tonight and wondered how I missed it in the theatres. In any event, better now than much later. It is about the cruel slaughter of thousands of dolphins in the waters around Japan and it brings me to tears. For human entertainment and ultimately greed, a massacre occurs every September through March of these wonderfully unique and intelligent creatures. Dolphins have been swimming by Japan for centuries and now they are being lured into a cove in a town called Taiji, lured to their deaths in a cruel way. A sheltered cove turns red with the blood of these slaughtered dolphins, whose mercury-filled meat is sold to an unsuspecting public disguised as something else. But those that are slaughtered endure much more than just a cruel death; they endure the fear, desperation, and separation from their pods/families, some of which are captured for dolphin shows around the world. Those dolphins that are not chosen become part of the bloody massacre in a sheltered cove.
I have watched a dolphin show as a kid at Sea World in San Diego but I have not gone to one since as I have always thought it sad that dolphins and orcas in these shows and in captivity have been taken from the vastness of their ocean home and put in basically what is a small pool to them. But now all the more I will never pay to see a dolphin show again. These forms of entertainment fuel the profitability of the actions that go on in Taiji, Japan. And if you think about it, these atrocities to the natural world happen because of us -- all of us who are enthralled into thinking that we want to be direct participants in taming nature and bringing it close. But we neglect to think about the cruelty of this to the natural world, and we neglect to think what impact and consequence it has on our future.
So sign the petition found on this site:
Save Japan Dolphins
And then, spread the word and reconsider dolphin shows and any "swim with the dolphins" programs. Consider instead the wonder of swimming (or surfing as some do with Surfers for Cetaceans) with them in the wild.
