I know I don't usually do this, but I just watched "The Cove" last night, and it was pretty horrifying. "The Cove" is the 2009 Academy Award winning documentary on the annual dolphin slaughter in Tiaji, Japan.
A lot of the movie centers around activist Richard O'Barry, who helped capture and train five dolphins for the "Flipper" series. After one of the dolphins died in his arms, he had a complete change of heart and immediately set to freeing captive dolphins. Read more about his incredible story here.
The title "The Cove" refers to a secluded lagoon in Tiaji, where over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered each year. The way they "heard" the dolphins into the lagoon is one of the most inhumane things I've ever seen. Some of them are selected as show dolphins, and the rest are killed for meat. Meat laden with toxic amounts of mercury. Most of the Japanese people don't even realize that they're buying dolphin meat, because it's usually mislabeled as higher quality whale meat. The city council of Tiaji was even planning on introducing dolphin meat into the school lunch program. They wanted to feed MERCURY LADEN MEAT TO SCHOOL CHILDREN!
This movie made me sad to be part of humanity and really glad that I don't live in Japan. But the lengths the film crew went through to make this documentary were pretty incredible. You can't help but admire their compassion and courage. And you've gotta love cameras hidden in fake rocks.
Anyways, that's my little soap box rant. You should totally see this movie. If you're an ECU student, you can get it from Joyner Library after I return it.
1 comment:
O'Barry and the director were on Democracy NOW! today, if you can find it online anywhere I recommend it.
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