Honestly, I thought the killing of the dolphins in Taiji was awfull and unecessary. However, I think we should show more repect and not act like it is only the Japanese that hunt animals for food. Did you know that people hunt elk, deer, moose, bears and other animals in North America purely for sport? Why aren’t all of you enviromental nuts and left wing hollywood elites protesting and making movies about that? Japan is an Island nation. They’ve traditional relied on the ocean for food. There was a recent case in Wyoming where a bunch of Cowboys encircled a heard of elk and gunned them down killing 20+ some elk. How would we like it if some foreigners came here and made a movie to show all of the world that Americans are evil animal killers.

Racism is alive and well in most countries including Japan,and it just depends how far down you want to scratch.

In this case, people who oppose the killing of whales and dolphins do so out of the possibility that cetaceans represent a level of consciousness akin to our own. This supposition raises the level of concern to one categorically different from that of the argument over killing, say, chickens for food. If it is true that cetacean consciousness is more similar to human consciousness than to cow, pig, or horse consciousness, then killing them seems more heinous than killing these other creatures. On the other hand, there are those in PETA, as well as in other groups, that seem to believe that self-awareness is common throughout the animal kingdom and is but a matter of degree. To these, killing any animal is unjust.

That a cultural bias runs deep in this argument is clear when one reads the posts here. It exists on both sides of the argument, in much the same way that a religious bias exits on each side of the abortion debate in America. Those on either side are unwilling to cede what is “obvious” to them to the other side. And moral certitude leads each side to be unlikely to accept compromise.

Personally, I would prefer the dolphin cull to end in Taiji and elsewhere, simply on the grounds that humans are creatures that have evolved to a high level of technological prowess largely on the basis of one opposable digit, the thumb, and a brain that is suitably complex to serve as a platform for self-aware consciousness, and that it may be that within the cetacean realm that whales and dolphins have evolved a similar level of conscious self awareness. But without the thumb. Or the need for technology. I would rather we could all choose to eat the dumber things first, I suppose.

Best to you all.

It was well done.

Thank you Rick for making this movie, and for all that you do for the dolphins.

Keep up the fight. There are many behind you, including me.

People who care about animals will defend them regardless of the country who is being cruel to them.

I am Canadian and am against the Canadians that club our seals to death.

I am also against the Norwegians for killing whales.

You are missing out on so much with that attitude and belief.

Here is an article I have framed in my home:

“Diviner than the dolphin is nothing yet created” the author of that quote is Oppian, Halieutica.

The dolphin as NURSE

Dolphins often buoy sick or injured dolphins and support their newborn calves above water so that they can get their first breath.

The dolphin as LIFEGUARD

Hundreds of swimmers and sailors have been saved from drowning by dolphins who pushed them to safety.

The dolphin as PILOT

There are numerous records of dolphins guiding ships through dangerous waters to safety.

The dolphin as PROTECTOR

Last year off the coast of Florida, dolphins defended a group of ship-wrecked sailors from attacking sharks.

This is an animal that possesses extraordinary skills we have only begun to understand. And one which has offered us nothing but kindness.

For more information contact “Earth Island Institute”.

Learn about them and you will know and understand and hopefully you will come to love them and be a voice for them too.

…….at least, in comparison to UK or US, racism looks still pretty strong in Australia. Being hated by racists is nothing.

Naiveness-induced racism is a bit harder to deal with than ill-will induced ones like Apartheid.

And as far as whale meat goes, there is a whole store dedicated to it in Asakusa. One of the top 5 international tourist destinations in Tokyo. I’m surprised that whale meat shop hasn’t been covered by Japan Probe, or has it?

But generally speaking, most Japanese, especially the younger generation, don’t eat whale, or especially dolphin meat on a regular basis. But if you choose to do, you can in Japan. It’s definitely not Australia when it comes to food choice.

I have heard average Japanese people saying that dolphins are a pest to fishermen, and interfere in their business. Probably just propaganda feed to them by the pro-fishing media/dolphin killing fishermen.

Maybe us Australians have also been feed propaganda by the kangaroo killing farmers.

We should definitely clean up our own backyard before poking our noses into others’. But that doesn’t mean we can’t lend a helping hand when it’s needed.

As for the grave vandals in Broome, sounds like the same kind of people who beat up the Japanese school kid, and called him a whale eater. Just ignorant losers that needed an excuse to pick on someone/thing weaker than them.

http://blogs.discovery.com/news_animal/2009/06/top-10-most-intelligent-animals.html

Again, you are missing the target. “Japan” is not the enemy in this case, the people who kill the dolphins are.

“words that can justify violence”

Interesting. In the wider sense, do you consider that such justification would/could be legitimate, or that while people can claim words made them be violent, their justification is merely an excuse?

The Cove is an unbelievably compelling film dealing with two narratives. One Rick O’Barry’s struggle in coming to terms with helping to create a billion dollar industry of Dolphins in captivity. Many of these Dolphins you find around the world come from Taiji. The second, the Dolphin killing at Taiji.
Rick’s arguments are the following. One, Dolphins die of stress in captivity. Two, in Japan fisherman are being told by the government that Dolphins are pests, depleting the amount of fish in the ocean and creating lower gains for fisherman. Killing them is a sort of pest control. These fisherman are also feeding the meat to the population deceiving them, labeling it as whale meat. Unbeknownst to Japanese and most of the world, Dolphins, like humans feed on top of the food chain meaning the fish they eat are laced with mercury and subsequently Dolphin meat contains toxic amounts of mercury. So this meat is basically poisoning the population. And all this is done in secret at a cove in Taiji.
The movie is more about our humanity than anything else. The way the dolphins are killed holds no compassion and even less reason. Just like Food Inc. deals with the humanity of how we treat farmed animals, Rick is pleading to the international community on the abuse of these animals, and the entire ecosystem.
I highly suggest watching the Cove. Rick’s struggle to come to terms with his guilt is heart wrenching, and his dedication inspiring. It is a splendid piece of filmmaking.

It is, however, chock full of lead, so I wouldn’t make a habit of it.

they acts like the korean or chinese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj6j6MRbdyw&fmt=18

That is exactly what the road to hell looks like. Grand gestures that make you feel good and accomplise not merely nothing but actively cause harm to those that are innocent. Precisely what responsibility does a factory worker at Toyota have for killing dolphins that his livelihood needs to be threatened?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj6j6MRbdyw

I can’t say if this is right or wrong because I eat meat. Raising Cow/Pig/Chicken in a farm is no better than whaling like this. Treat Animal Humanely? You are going to kill these animal one way or another. I don’t see how humane we can be because we are killing the animal? Here, I let you run around in the farm and give you all the food you ever want to eat… then I’ll chop your head after several months. Sad but true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj6j6MRbdyw

I can’t say if this is right or wrong because I eat meat. Raising Cow/Pig/Chicken in a farm is no better than whaling like this. Treat Animal Humanely? You are going to kill these animal one way or another. I don’t see how humane we can be because we are killing the animal? Here, I let you run around in the farm and give you all the food you ever want to eat… then I’ll chop your head after several months. Sad but true.

Even if you are vegetarian, your trash end up in the ocean and your house was built on a forest where animal lives.

The one thing I do consider eating less is shark fin.

Judging from the clips I’ve seen, one of the points this documentary makes is that the Taiji dolphin culling is carried out in a secretive way, and not well covered by the Japanese media.

Wow, yeah, the Nazis were white. I guess then since the Nazis were also humans that all humans are Nazis.

Can we have a rule that any post that fulfills Godwin’s Law gets deleted as spam?

As for dolphin harvesting being ‘genocide’, well that’s just laughable. Gasp! Hundreds of thousands of cows are murdered in the U.S. every year! Millions of tuna are rounded up and assassinated in the North Seas! It seems that only animals that are made into cute little figurines for your mantelpiece aren’t for eating.