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Taiji dolphin hunt halted because of ‘The Cove’?

September 3rd, 2009 by James

While checking Google News a few moments ago, I discovered some shocking news: the Taiji dolphin hunt has been halted. According to the headlines, “The Cove,” a documentary that highlighted the cruel and inhumane manner in which Japanese fishermen hunt and kill cute/intelligent dolphins, has been a wild success:

what the fuck is this

The reports are, of course, unfounded. There is absolutely no evidence that the Taiji dolphin hunt has been stopped because of the actions of foreigners who love dolphins. For the past few days the Japanese media has been reporting that bad weather and rough seas have prevented the hunt from going through as planned.

Here’s a clip from NTV news in which that very fact is reported ["団体はクジラの追い込み漁も視察する予定だったが、天候が悪く、漁は行われなかった。"], along with a few seconds of Ric O’Barry telling the media that Taiji should sell fruit instead of dolphins:

Stay tuned to this blog tomorrow: I’ll try to post about a slightly more detailed Japanese news report on the Taiji dolphin hunt controversy.



Related Posts:
 

Taiji dolphin hunt begins: about 100 dolphins and 50 pilot whales driven into cove

Chinese cartoon about Taiji dolphin hunt

Do the Japanese Eat Dolphins?

Taiji disappointed to hear that “The Cove” won an Oscar

A Secret Documentary of the Taiji Dolphin Slaughter has Been Shot


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75 Comments »

Comment by Rrabano
2009-09-04 00:48:42

Who are the world to tell other country what not to eat and what to eat. What’s next. Stop eating rice.

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Comment by Kakiku
2009-09-04 02:00:48

It is called “The Tragedy of the Commons”. It describes a dilemma in which multiple individuals acting independently and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest will ultimately destroy a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone’s long term interest for this to happen.

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Comment by RobD
2009-12-29 23:40:32

What you need to understand is that it’s more than one country. The IWC is full of nations that are against such behaviors. Eating rice doesn’t harm intelligent mammals.

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Comment by mo
2009-09-04 01:36:19

oh the poor fishermen…
seriously, I’m sick of the imperialists telling people from other cultures what to do..
if they take away jobs from the Taiji fishermen, they have to give them another job – those people need to fish to live!!

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Comment by TheManiac
2009-09-06 19:37:57

Jobs?
Waaaaaay more money on dolphin sightseeing tours if spent more time promoting THAT internationally!

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Comment by TaijiHorror
2010-01-20 17:33:53

The horror of Taiji is a world issue. This is not about “imperialists telling people from other cultures what to do”, as you so ridiculously stated. Not only is over 70% of our plent’s surface covered with water, but over 98% of the habital space is water. Of course, this makes our planet absolutely dominated and reliant on our oceans. The highest point on the food chain on our planet are whales (doplhins are technically and scientifically considered small whales). This issue is not about telling other countries what to do, it’s about ensuring the survival and prosperity of these extremely important and wonderful creautures. Humans are more reliant on the ocean than most people think and killing off the most important species in the ocean would have catastophic effects on humans. I’ve been fortunate enough to scuba dive with dolphins once, and if you would ever get the chance to interact with these creatures, you might also understand that it’s also simply and unthinkably inhume behavior. There must never be another whale slaughter in Taiji or any other place on this planet, ever. This issue is global.

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Comment by LB
2010-01-20 18:27:46

WTF is it about ideologues that makes them write in annoying, overbearing prose? Do they think more people will listen if they write using big words and pretentious phraseology?

Hint: we won’t. All this tedious prose makes us want to do is laugh at you, or roll our eyes, or yawn.

Or all three.

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Comment by helical
2010-01-20 18:55:04

I dunno, I think laughing and yawning at the same time makes my diaphragm convulse in unpleasant ways.

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Comment by Nick in Nagoya
2009-09-04 01:58:50

looking forward to these idiots getting out of japan

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Comment by Rob A
2009-09-04 02:19:51

I hope you mean the dolphin hunters, and not the protestors.

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Comment by nakamura25
2009-09-04 04:30:19

Obviously he means the strident, disrespectful hippies. They have no reason to be in Japan any longer.

And besides, they’re still hunting dolphins in the Faroe Islands (Denmark) so if O’Barry is committed to his cause, we’ll see him there tomorrow.

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Comment by George
2009-09-04 09:48:58

I’ve seen this comment a lot, nakamura. Essentially, because they’re not protecting dolphins everywhere, they have no right to do it anywhere? That’s pretty silly. They only have so much manpower, and even if their choice of Japan over Denmark is arbitrary, it is rationally sound to choose one place rather than try to be everywhere.

In other words, it makes far more sense for one group to focus deeply on one problem, than for one group to spread their resources so thin on many problems that they accomplish nothing.

Whether you agree with the Cove filmmakers’ opinions on dolphin hunting, you have to at least rationally agree that it makes far more sense to do what they’re doing than what you’re suggesting they do. They aren’t hypocrites, just humans with limited resources.

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Comment by ponta
2009-09-04 10:31:27

They have right to protest in any place but it is misguided to protest in such a way to fuel hatred against the particular nationality just as it is not wrong to protest against chicken eating for some reason but it is misguided to protest Black people’s eating chicken.

A Japanese descendant was attacked in NZ and Japanese cemetery was vandalized for Japan’s whale hunting and racist commercial was on air in Australia

And now since this film was shown, hate mails has been sent to Broome people of Japanese descent.

Something is seriously wrong with this extreme activism.

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Comment by stereo
2009-09-04 10:49:02

George, you are wrong.
If a policeman in NY arrests Blacks only, he is a racist.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-04 11:15:16

That statement is fantastically off base. The only way it could work is this:
Let’s imagine three gangs: blacks, yakuza, mafia, operating out of NY. The FBI wants to clean them up, but has limited manpower. So since there have been disturbing media reports of what the black gang is doing, they go after that first.

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Comment by nakamura25
2009-09-04 12:51:19

George said:

“I’ve seen this comment a lot, nakamura. Essentially, because they’re not protecting dolphins everywhere, they have no right to do it anywhere?”

George, you obviously didn’t read my post. Try reading it again.

The dolphin hunt in Taiji is over. O’Barry can now move on to the next country that allows dolphin hunting. Of course they have limited resources. So they should go after one country at a time. They succeeded in Japan, so they should continue their crusade elsewhere.

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Comment by George
2009-09-04 20:58:35

“The dolphin hunt in Taiji is over. O’Barry can now move on to the next country that allows dolphin hunting. Of course they have limited resources. So they should go after one country at a time. They succeeded in Japan, so they should continue their crusade elsewhere.”

Nakamura, you obviously didn’t read the story surrounding this entire comment thread. Try reading it again. The hunt hasn’t been halted. From the article, just above:

“While checking Google News a few moments ago, I discovered some shocking news: the Taiji dolphin hunt has been halted.

The reports are, of course, unfounded. There is absolutely no evidence that the Taiji dolphin hunt has been stopped…”

That said, you’re being completely unrealistic. It takes time and planning to do any sort of activism properly, whether you agree with the activists or not. They should be in Denmark tomorrow? Sorry, rhetoric and logic are incompatible in this case.

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Comment by ponta pon
2009-09-04 21:52:29

George
It takes time and planning all right, but do you happen to know when they are going to show the film, ” Save Europe Dolphins” “Save Australian Kangaroo” ” Save American cows”?
And do you think the journalists from, for instance, Germany, will come along with the directer of the film who are trying to stop the local people to kill the animals?

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Comment by M
2009-09-05 21:08:30

@ponta’s comment earlier about the racist commercial.

I know the video you’re talking about, and just for the record it was circulated on the internet only by one of the various anti-whaling eco-extremeist groups.

The video was never aired on Australian television for obvious reasons. The back-story that the far right propaganda machine has been circulating on Youtube with the video is false.

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Comment by ponta
2009-09-06 02:32:02

@M
Thanks for the imformation.
I am relieved to hear that.
That said, the fact remains that the video was made by anti-whaling eco-extremeist .
And let’s take a look at the following video.

The Chasers War On Everything – Whaling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBTnim2H450
国営放送:オージー捕鯨問題で在豪日本国大使をコケにする
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI5E3lpP0Kg

These are especially targeting the Japanese, not any people who eat animal meat.
I wonder why.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-06 17:05:31

You can’t take The Chasers seriously – their whole gimmick is taking things to the illogical extreme. They piss off everybody.

Funny video though. I think the “Sumo” meat was over the top, but it was also suprising how many people tried the meats.

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Comment by Rob A
2009-09-06 21:11:06

“They have right to protest in any place but it is misguided to protest in such a way to fuel hatred against the particular nationality just as it is not wrong to protest against chicken eating for some reason but it is misguided to protest Black people’s eating chicken.”

They are not fueling hatred against Japanese people, just the hunters in Taiji. If you’re against extremists in the middle east, it doesn’t mean you’re against all people in that region. Some people seem to have trouble separating the parts from the whole about any ethnic group.

Also, Chickens are some of the dumbest creatures alive, which are usually bred purely to provide food in some form. Dolphins and Whales have higher reasoning and intelligence than some(apparently most) humans.

Furthermore, saying “it is misguided to protest Black people’s eating chicken.” is far more racist and offensive than anything these protesters have done or said. The ‘Black People eat Fried Chicken’ stereotype is tired and ignorant.

One last thing: punctuation. Look it up.

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Comment by Adtr
2009-09-06 21:53:14

They are not fueling hatred against Japanese people, just the hunters in Taiji. If you’re against extremists in the middle east, it doesn’t mean you’re against all people in that region. Some people seem to have trouble separating the parts from the whole about any ethnic group.

Groups like Sea Shepherd and the makers of The Cove target Japan itself for not outlawing whaling and dolphin hunts. Even if the focus is on whalers and Taiji fishermen, the country as a whole is blamed for not doing enough to stop what is going on.

It is easy for anger over “Why Japan isn’t stopping the Dolphin genocide” to become anger at anything or anyone Japanese. This is especially so for the kind of people easily swept up by the emotional arguments activists focus on.

Also, Chickens are some of the dumbest creatures alive, which are usually bred purely to provide food in some form.

Some animal rights activists make the same kind of arguments about chicken intelligence that you make about dolphin intelligence.

http://www.chickenindustry.com/cfi/intelligence/

Somebody else brought up the “mirror test” on one of these threads as proof of dolphin intelligence. Just checking Wikipedia, I notice that tiny-brained birds like Magpies have also passed the same test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test#Animals_that_pass_the_mirror_test

Dolphins and Whales have higher reasoning and intelligence than some(apparently most) humans.

There we have it. Rob A breaks out the ideology that Sea Shepherd and its hardcore followers really believe: whales and dolphins are superior to humans.

Humans are trash that infect this earth. Self-loathing over the caused by humans translates into the deification of whales and dolphins. Followers of this “eco” religion project their own ideals about harmony into the heads of dolphins and whales. Surely these creatures are flopping around in the water all day because they are more intelligent and enlightened than vile humans!

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Comment by ponta
2009-09-07 03:25:07

They are not fueling hatred against Japanese people, just the hunters in Taiji. If you’re against extremists in the middle east, it doesn’t mean you’re against all people in that region. Some people seem to have trouble separating the parts from the whole about any ethnic group

When many people have trouble separating the animal hunters in the world from the Japanese and the hatred has been fueled against Japanese as a result of the activism, despite the activist’s intention, there is something seriously wrong with the the animal right activists and the way journalists report them.

Furthermore, saying “it is misguided to protest Black people’s eating chicken.” is far more racist and offensive than anything these protesters have done or said. The ‘Black People eat Fried Chicken’ stereotype is tired and ignorant.

The ‘Black People eat Fried Chicken’ is not stereotype in Japan, and I don’t think it is in any other Asian countries.
It is a local stereotype and it is perhaps a result of evil propaganda in your local culture. And it seems the activism about the whale/dolphin are perpetuating the new evil stereotype about the particular ethnic group and the activists don’t give a shit.

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Comment by M
2009-09-07 09:52:19

Ponta, I’m not trying to undermine your position. I recognize that crazy, eco-extremists sometimes do use racism and shock tactics in desperation. I dislike them as much as you do.

However, I do think they are a lot more marginal than it would seem, it’s just the amount of commotion that the extremists cause that makes them seem so numerous/intimidating.

I wouldn’t take any offense to the Chaser though. They’re a fake-news, comedy group that parodies the media/world issues in general by using bad-taste/offensiveness to shock audiences. There are no limits to what they make fun of and I don’t think that video was made out of any real contempt for Japan. It’s similar to what you would expect from The Onion or South Park.

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Comment by ponta
2009-09-07 12:18:54

M
Thanks.

For Japanese, those crazy, eco-extremists stand out because they are targeting Japan and the Japanese in irrational ways, and when some animal right activists make it look as if they were targeting Japan and the Japanese, there will be unnecessary reactions from Japanese.
They can attack the brutal ways the animals in general are killed for food, but if they make film such as “save Japan dolphin”, “save Alaska whale “save Australia cows”, it is inevitable some kind of antagonism will follow.

Expanding circle is not a bad idea but when they expand it unfairly and unequally, it smacks of old racism.

The activists should educate people and the western journalists should report it without sounding hypocritical.

As the Chaser, maybe I shouldn’t take it seriously but the question remains why they targeted Japan and Japanese only.

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Comment by Rob A
2009-09-04 02:23:32

Good riddance.

Whether because of bad seas or the protest, I’m glad it’s stopped. These animals are not food animals, they are intelligent social creatures. If they had the intelligence of a cow or chicken I’d be on board with the hunt, but they’re way above that. They have pretty advanced problem-solving abilities and even defend each other against higher-order predators.

Besides that, the Taiji hunters are using brutal and inexcusable tactics to hunt them. I’d love to see the dolphin hunters chased and rounded up in a field by men with nets and harpoons driving behind them at 20mph. Give them an idea of what they’re doing.

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Comment by Mike
2009-09-04 04:06:50

That’s a brilliant argument! “I don’t agree with something because I think it’s brutal, therefore, I think the ones I don’t agree with should be brutalized.”

Also, could you kindly post your “Rob A.-approved Food Animal List” so I can make sure I’m not in violation of it…or is that online somewhere? I’d hate to run afoul of it and have you and your elite strike-team of Eco-Avengers chasing me around with nets and harpoons.

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Comment by Level3
2009-09-04 09:31:44

True, Mike.

But never forget. It’s the people on the left who are far more likely to get violent when it comes to trying to force their politics on others. It’s the ones on the left who are driven by hatred (they call it “passion”) and intolerance of dissent (against THEM, that is)

After all, they think Communism is a cool idea, an idea which at it’s core is just “Kill all the rich people and keep their stuff.” and is directly responsible for 130,000,000 deaths in just 100 years. Yet, they think Che is cool, and the hammer and sickle makes a nice T-shirt.

There’s nothing more violent than a young, hip “pacifist”. Nothing more deadly than a bunch of young, hip leftists getting political.

Except zombies.

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Comment by helical
2009-09-04 21:14:16

Don’t worry, I’m sure shotguns work just as effectively as a liberal-repellent as it does being a zombie-repellent.

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Comment by J
2009-09-04 09:40:11

What are food animals???? I have pretty much eaten anything that moves and is not an insect. Whale, dog, horse, etc… (strangely never had dolphin, unless it came in a can of tuna). I don’t really think it makes all that much of a difference whether they are sociable and intelligent or not (I find horses and dogs much more intelligent and sociable then dolphins). Plenty of animals are sociable or intelligent. Doesn’t stop us from eating them, just depends on the culture. Just because your culture doesnt find it attractive doesnt mean others can’t.

Cows were probably reasonably intellegent back in the day, we just bred stupidity into them. I do not want any animals driven towards extinction but I don’t mind a little culling here and there and last time I checked dolphins were not running on the endangered list like whales.

As for brutality, obviously you have never seen where your chicken, pork, and beef come from. I use to work in a slaughter house when I was younger and I can tell you. They do not put the animals down “peacefully”. Getting them cut up is all they care about.

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Comment by R
2010-02-21 12:36:10

The dolphins can figure out what’s going to happen to them. They see their mothers and fathers bleeding to death and asking for unavaliable help. They see it comming, and that to me is the sadest thing I have ever thought of in my life. They are stabbed to death if lucky. Most bleed to death. How do you not feel obligated to help them? how do you not feel anger twords the fishermen (dolphin killers) for doing this? I can’t even imagine being killed like this. Or even tortured in that mannor. The dolphin hunt in Taiji is not officially over, and we need to stay there to make sure the dolphin killing doesn’t continue.

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Comment by jc
2009-09-04 02:49:26

R.o’B. giving interviews to foreign reporters he brought along = embedded journalism.

Considering the amount and utter scale of human contempt against nature espoused by their kin, I’m amused to see them give more attention to animals than humans – dumping carbon into the skies will just kill us in the end and they’re doing nothing about it.

Taiji hunters using cruel methods to hunt is a disgrace. So is a gaijin going to another country and loudly opposing what they have done for decades i.e. that idiot from Canada who argued with a right-wing politico in front of lots of right-wing people. The most effective protests always have to be homegrown. Why would you listen to a bunch of non-resident aliens giving voodoo “advice” over what you should not be doing?

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Comment by IJP
2009-09-04 03:21:41

I couldn’t agree more. As usual, it’s a case of both sides being wrong in different ways.

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Comment by George
2009-09-04 10:00:37

“Why would you listen to a bunch of non-resident aliens giving voodoo “advice” over what you should not be doing?”

Because maybe they’re right? Just because someone is culturally insensitive doesn’t mean they aren’t correct. I don’t know if you’re Japanese or not, but you’re certainly pushing forward the worst kind of xenophobic attitudes people stereotype Japan with.

Either the dolphin hunt is ethical or it’s unethical. The fact that the person making the argument is foreigner or local hasn’t got a thing to do with whether it’s a proper argument.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-04 11:18:17

“Either the dolphin hunt is ethical or it’s unethical.”

This is the big problem. WHO gets to decide?

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Comment by George
2009-09-04 21:01:15

“This is the big problem. WHO gets to decide?”

The one who has the best moral argument. And that doesn’t have anything to do with whether one’s a foreigner or not.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-05 11:21:19

You have missed the point. Who decides which is the best moral argument?

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Comment by stereo
2009-09-04 11:32:35

“Either the dolphin hunt is ethical or it’s unethical.”

Oh my. I know similar questions.
“Either Jesus is god’s child or he is not.”
“Either Muhammad is the last prophet or he is not.”
Arguing these questions to decide who is right and who is wrong lead to bloody things in the history. People learned from it and established the freedom of religion.

Now, is it ethical to hunt and eat dolphins? Who knows? Most Japanese do not eat dolphins. But they support dolphin hunters in Taiji, because it is about the freedom of choice of food. It is just like people from various faiths help each other to protect the freedom of religion if one religious group is attacked.

I strongly support the freedom of choice of food. I am not a dolphin eater or a vegetarian, but I respect the rights of dolphin eaters and vegetarians. And I am pretty sure that those animal rights activists do not have the right to dictate what to eat and what not to eat.

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Comment by Eric
2009-09-04 17:51:39

Hmmm, that’s maybe a good comparison. Freedom of religion is fine, but when people get intolerant with it, religion can be very destructive, like when American Evangelicals kill doctors who perform abortions because they consider them murderers.

The Taiji dolphin hunts may offend some people’s sensibilities, but they don’t actually adversely affect them because they in no way endanger the survival of the species.

A Japanese behavior that has already had a big impact on foreign countries is the huge increase seen in the consumption of bluefin tuna with the rise in affluence in Japan–starting back in the late 70s consumption of sushi exploded in Japan. This fact has been especially detrimental to bluefin tuna populations around the world.

But tuna aren’t especially cute, so nobody gets het-up over the fact that they are being consumed unsustainably–except the Japanese mass media who a few years ago were blaming foreigners for eating up too much tuna and making it expensive for Japanese.

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Comment by George
2009-09-04 21:05:03

“I strongly support the freedom of choice of food.”

Yes, I too remember when Kant and Hume wrote their great works on the freedom…of choice…of food.

It was wonderful when the U.S. Founders also engaged in the great freedom of choice of food debates, and enshrined it into our constitution, which was then used as a model for the Japanese constitution. These great thinkers understood that people can morally eat anything they want, because the choice of food exists outside of moral law, because…well…I say it does. I mean, they said it does.

Humans, of course, are the tastiest. I mean, some people don’t seem to understand, but luckily I have the freedom of choice of food on my side.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-05 11:26:39

Your freedom of choice only extends as far as it is legally allowed. Eating humans is not legal. Eating dolphins is.

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Comment by R
2010-02-21 12:45:15

This makes me sad. Did you see the movie the Cove, or even pay attention? It’s not cultural, because no one even knows about it! you would think that if it was a part of their culture that every one (not only the Japan government) would know about it! Even if they do have a choice they are getting poisoned, the murcury levels are off the charts and lethal. We NEED to realize that dolphins can’t be slaughtered in such huge numbers, totaling 20,000 a YEAR thats 200,000 in 10 years. How many dolphins do we have left? hmm? Many of the meat isn’t even needed. Please realize that they are very intelligent and can realize whats going to happen to them. They see their mothers and fathers bleeding to death, they can’t escape and are tortured. I understand that you will make an argument against me in that americans eat cows and chickens, but please realize that we breed them, we dont get them from the wild, and we arnt ruining the ocean life. Please don’t be oblivious.

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Comment by Trufax
2009-09-04 04:21:11

I wouldn’t like to see an animal as dumb as a cow suffering a death as slow and painful as the Taiji fisherman inflict on dolphins.

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Comment by Anonymous
2009-09-04 05:57:00

Deport the gaijins.

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Comment by dobokun
2009-09-04 07:20:16

Well Japan needs to agree with the international community more often. Just like their annual whale hunt in international waters exploiting a loophole, Japan should try to cooperate with international bodies on issues that affect them more often. A smaller scale hunt might not be so bad though, as with the whales.

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Comment by nakamura25
2009-09-04 08:25:17

Ric O’Barry is hardly an “international body.”

We’re talking about 26 dolphin hunters in domestic waters. This is an extremely tiny minority, and not an issue Japan as a nation should be concerned about.

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Comment by mo
2009-09-04 08:16:02

What is “the international community” ?
You mean the America and Australia?
You really should know there are countries other than Japan hunting whales.

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Comment by Iago
2009-09-04 09:17:39

There’s an oft quoted idiom: “Timing has much to do with the outcome of a Rain Dance.” Perhaps that applies here, too.

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Comment by HamachiMan
2009-09-04 09:49:56

I imagine that those so fervently embracing this Taiji cause are as fervent in stopping the brutal conditions animals in the U.S. are subject to so that meat can be put on the dinner table. And the seal hunt. And the slaughter of dogs and other animals in inhumane conditions in other parts of the world. And so on and so forth.

But probably not, it’s always easiest to pick on Japan, the world’s most convenient and easy villains.

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Comment by Enuii
2009-11-30 10:24:04

Seriously? Japan as the most easy and convenient villains!?!? There are FAR easier and much more convenient villains than the Japanese. ;p

For real, though, let us look at the driving force behind this uproar. The man who started it all worked on a show where he built up a rapport with the dolphin(s). His POV is from his social location as one from within the entertainment industry. The Japanese fishermen are engaging in a cultural practice that is acceptable from their social location and are from a TOWN in Japan and are not representative of Japan as a whole. And shouldn’t the real issue be that bad people are selling poisoned meat to their own countrymen??? Just a thought…

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Comment by futureal
2009-09-04 10:34:00

The problem, and the reason that “the West” is accused of hypocrisy on this topic is that there’s nothing unethical about the dolphin hunt that isn’t also unethical about killing cows or pigs. And that happens on a much larger scale.

I’d assume most of the filmmakers are vegetarians, but the folks like the above poster who eat meat, just from their culturally-determined list of appropriate “food animals” and think people who choose from a different list are either backwards or barbaric, are simply being ethnocentric and chauvinist on this matter.

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Comment by fh
2009-09-04 20:44:31

The problem is that those types of people are so convinced by their own sense of self-appointed duty that it far outweighs any ethnocentric or chaevanistic behavior that may accompany their quest.

I think the real hypocrisy (or maybe it’s irony) is that these filmmakers only promote their message among people who will agree with them in order to garner support (ie: money), and then use that support simply to generate hype (faux credibility) — and in the end typically very little is actually accomplished despite all the fuss they create.

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Comment by Troy
2009-09-04 14:53:36

The issue isn’t about choice of foods at all. It is about how these animals are killed. I am Australian and Australia is often criticised for killing kangaroos for meat. I have no problem with eating kangaroos per se but I have a lot of problems with animals being killed inhumanely. I also have a problem with choosing a “meat” species at the species level with population sizes. Domesticated animals are generally not at risk of being severely depleted at the population level. So, for a myriad of reasons, people keep diverting attention from cruel killing of dolphins by saying that we kill animals all the time. That is a very poor argument.

Also, the issues with Japanese people are probably arising because of the national ignorance of the issue so it is very heartening to see japanese media finally covering the issue. hopefully Japanese people themselves will become the strongest advocated for saving hte Taijin dolphins.

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Comment by ponta pon
2009-09-04 17:25:00

Also, the issues with Japanese people are probably arising because of the national ignorance of the issue

So are Australian people killing Kangaroo and cows inhumanly and eating them and exporting beef knowing that they are killed inhumanely?

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Comment by LB
2009-09-04 18:22:56

“I have a lot of problems with animals being killed inhumanely”

Just what, pray tell, is a “humane” way to kill something? There may be “less inhumane” ways to kill an animal, but I have yet to see a “humane” way, aside possibly from putting an animal to sleep, but I would not want to eat the meat of anything that was killed after being massively OD’d on chemicals.

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Comment by TofuUnion
2009-09-04 21:45:46

> The issue isn’t about choice of foods at all. It is about how these animals are killed.

Haa ? It’s about rude behavior of those foreigners. How do you feel if Japanese come to Australia to protest against eating kangaroos ?

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-04 22:33:18

There are a lot of Australians who would welcome them.

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Comment by who
2009-09-04 19:17:29

What does killing an animal humanely do? Does it affect the taste or something? You can treat an animal as humanely as you want, but people are going to chew it up, shit it out, and flush it down the toilet anyway. So much for compassion and dignity for animals.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-04 22:34:22

“What does killing an animal humanely do? Does it affect the taste or something?”

Yes. Adrenalin makes the meat tougher, so you don’t want to panic the animal or make it feel fear.

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Comment by HamachiMan
2009-09-04 22:38:08

The answer is simple, if Japanese activists or whatnot dared go to Australia (or any other country for that matter) to protest or highlight inhumane treatment of animals, the locals will immediately cry foul and blast the Japanese by saying ‘you guys have no right to criticize anything, look at the dolphins, this is our country mind your own business, etc. etc.’ Basically, they’d engage in the same behavior they purport to criticize here.

Hypocrisy knows no racial, ethnic, or national bounds.

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Comment by Simon
2009-09-05 14:10:36

Hamachiman – Spot on. I’m Australian and I know it would go just like you said.

We need to be removing planks from our own eyes before going after specks, etc.

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Comment by Roberto
2009-09-05 00:40:01

If it is culture and tradition because the Japanese are hiding and block access to and the filming ?

On Japanese TV every tiny detail of Japanese life is shown… but not this kind of documentary. Why not?

It’s very clear that this activity is CRIMINAL, trafficking and killing dolphins for WATER PARK.

That’s MAFIA, the same MAFIA that kills whales for “scientific” purposes in the Antartic Sanctuary, “scientific” or SUPERMARKET ?

Dolphins & whales are being killed at rates faster than they can reproduce & slaughtered in illegal ways that. The nature takes 10 years to produce a dolphin, the Japanese government is ignoring International Law.

Japan – hang your head in shame!

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Comment by HamachiMan
2009-09-05 09:17:27

What are you talking about Roberto, have you not been reading the Japan Probe site? There’s several discussion points about Japanese programming covering the Taiji controversy. That does not seem like anyone’s trying to hide anything here.

And why should all of Japan hand their head in shame? This is only a small portion of Japanese that kill dolphins. Worry about the problems in your own country first my friend.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2009-09-05 11:28:27

“the Japanese government is ignoring International Law.”

Which law?

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Comment by Eric
2009-09-05 16:25:45

You’re joking right? I get it–you’re doing a parody of the angry and unreasonable gaijin, right?

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Comment by Stereo
2009-09-07 12:52:52

It is by no means illegal to kill dolphins.

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Comment by TheManiac
2009-09-06 19:35:51

Yo Japan Probe!
Good reporting.
Really glad to hear that.
How bout more updates on that?

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Comment by siewmai
2009-09-07 15:44:28

the fact is, this argument about who’s right and who’s wrong will go on for generations to come, one culture against the other, because there is a distinct lack of education and understanding of each other’s culture.

If only we can be humble, take the best of each other’s culture and learn from it, and not be so self-righteous about everything.

Such thinking might be idealistic though..but i think cultures need to evolve for the better and keep the good, improve on the not so good, and get rid of the downright unnecessary.

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Comment by DeViOuS
2009-09-10 00:14:03

yet more egotistic humans. God forbid we ever come into contact with an alien species, we’ll slaughter them and eat them with our two veg as well! It never stops to amaze me how self centered people can be and its never more evident than in some of the comments on here! Some say an alien species has already been to earth and communicated with the ancients then left again, I say we ate them! Yet we claim to be the intelligent ones HAHAHA!!!!!

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Comment by Idealist
2009-12-30 01:06:15

For me, this is not really a matter of whose culture is right or wrong. Its not about racism and telling other countries what they should be doing.

This is more about living ‘with’ earth rather than ‘on’ earth. think about this, there is a big difference when it comes to killing cows and killing dolphins. Killing cows give humans food to eat. Killing dolphins give humans food that could kill them. There is no basic reason to kill dolphins. It won’t help us survive nor provide food on our table. Its basically just murdering animals than have nothing to do with us.

If the Japanese are just out there to kill dolphins because of traditions based on human reasoning rather than instinctual then, by god, we humans have gotten so low! If we let them kill the dolphins for a human urge, will this even help us survive in the end? Answer is: it does not.

GIVE ME A GOOD REASON WHY WE SHOULD KILL DOLPHINS BECAUSE I JUST DON’T GET IT.

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Comment by ponta
2009-12-30 02:00:43

Give vegetarians a good reason why we should kill animals because they just don’t get it.

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Comment by wally
2010-01-04 17:17:13

How could u be so cold-bloody to eat the most beautiful creature in the ocean .I got it,u are still the savage.

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Comment by Ajapa
2010-01-04 17:39:02

Being a cold-blooded creature saves a lot of calories to be consumed. It saves lives of many creatures as a result. Eggplants are beautiful. Stupid!

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Comment by TaijiHorror
2010-01-20 19:05:59

The horror of Taiji (and anywhere else that dolphins or whales are being slaughtered…including Denmark) is a world issue. This is not about “imperialists telling people from other cultures what to do”. Not only is over 70% of our planet’s surface covered with water, but over 98% of the habitable space is water. Of course, this makes our planet absolutely dominated and reliant on our oceans. The highest point on the marine food chain is whales (dolphins are technically and scientifically considered small whales). This issue is not about telling other countries what to do; it’s about ensuring the survival and prosperity of these extremely important and wonderful creatures. Humans are more reliant on the ocean than most people think and killing off the most important species in the ocean would have catastrophic effects on humans. I’ve been fortunate enough to scuba dive with dolphins before, and if you would ever get the chance to interact with these creatures, you might also understand that it’s simply and unthinkably inhume behavior. There must never be another dolphin slaughter in Taiji or any other place on this planet, ever. This issue is global. Anyone with some intelligence can quickly understand the interdependence of the most dominant creatures of the sea and the most dominant creatures on land. Yes, our survival depends on the earth and the earth is primarily water. Killing off the highest portion of the food chain would disrupt the marine ecosystem in ways that would directly impact human beings. This isn’t an opinion, nor is it complex science. We must share this world in order to exist, ourselves. Taiji, Denmark…wherever dolphins or whales are being killed…it must end.

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