It’s like poking at a sore tooth, wanting to flip the world upside down and peer at the dark underbelly of humanity and our arrogance.
I make myself do these things because I feel I need to bear witness, and then in turn, ask other people to bear witness with me.
I watched The Cove tonight on ABC and I cried. The slaughter of dolphins in a cove in Japan, when the water turned red with blood.. Images of dolphins trying to escape and the screams of the babies as they were stabbed to death will make me cry for while yet.
Dolphins are possibly, more intelligent than humans. They are self aware and yet, we insist on killing them. Most dolphin meat isn’t sold as dolphin meat, but sold as whale meat (which: whole other issue, humans should not be killing whales either).
The dolphins that are killed are the ones rejected by the dolphin trainers. Deemed not pretty enough, or perfect enough to be sold to places like Seaworld, they are herded into the cove and slaughtered. Every single one.
If we didn’t have a market for captive dolphins, would the slaughter still continue? I don’t know.
I can’t do anything to help, except throw a little money the way of the campaign and add my voice to theirs.
I am standing up to say that this isn’t right and more steps should be taken to stop it.
You can watch The Cove on iView if you missed it. It’s available for 13 days, after that you’ll need to buy the DVD.
Have tissues handy.
I am not going to watch it. I have enough to be upset about in my life at the moment. I am sure it is very distressing 🙁
I understand entirely. x Hope you’re okay.
I saw that this was available on Netflix instant view and thought about putting it on for the kids. I’m really glad I didn’t now, they’d have to go into therapy!
I was channel surfing briefly tonight and caught a glimpse of it. It was heartbreaking. I’m usually like yourself – I make myself watch things that are comfronting so that I can bear witness, but tonight I couldn’t. It was too painful, and like Alida, I have too much to be upset about at the moment in my life so I selfishly (or perhaps protectively) decided “not now”. Maybe sometime in the future. Good on you for watching and saying something about it. I admire you for it. We need to do something about it.
I remember when this was first released and gained some media attention, it seemed as though something might be done. It hasn’t. It seems that the less whale meat Japanese ships bring home, the more they will substitute for dolphin meat. The fact that they’re killing themselves with mercury poisoning in the process is beyond comprehension. The look on that councillor’s face when talking about school lunches was heartbreaking. But not as heartbreaking as watching those wounded and bleeding dolphins trying to swim away.
The observation that the Japanese insistent stance on whaling is a defiant ‘You can’t tell me what to do’ is frustrating, reminds me of dealing with a toddler. Maybe Tony Abbott could connect with the Japanese government on that one.
I couldn’t watch that show, I can barely look at the picture you’ve included.
Are they slaughtered for meat or do the Japanese believe it’s some kind of population control? Are they overbred for the Seaworld market in the first place?
Wrong on so many levels!
The officials who were quoted in the story last night started off saying that it was all about the meat and then were also quoted saying it was about “pest control” – which I found shocking.
These are wild dolphins, not dolphins bred for training or slaughter.
I can’t – I just can’t. The picture on your post was too much for me. I understand that we as humans have to be aware of what others of our species are doing to our wildlife – their habitat – other humans – our land – our water – etc etc – but I just can’t watch this. Sometimes – actually a lot lately – I am just overwhlemed with the horridness of this world. I try to see the good – but to do this I have to stay very close to home and family – it’s where I can trust. I watched the movie Gas Land the other night with my husband. My Goodness. That just set us down dumbstruck at the thought that this is now happening in Australia and is to be happening more and more on a grander scale. When – oh when – will this Earth be left in peace. Not in my lifetime that’s for sure. Thanks for bringing this to our attention and for watching for those who can’t. I will support.
I can’t watch it, I can’t even stand to watch kids movies featuring trained animals. Places like seaworld make me ill, that people view that animal torture as entertainment, makes me both queasy and angry. I just couldn’t bear to watch it, Beefy’s the same, too upsetting. Thank you for posting about it, gets the word out to those of use too fragile to watch it for ourselves.
x
sign the petition and make a noise . continue to display these images make the world help these beautiful creatures
I’ve taped it (Foxtel iQ) because I was too chicken to watch it the night it was on. Every night since then (Monday and now Tuesday) I’ve similarly chickened out of watching it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be in the right frame of mind to put myself through that tormenting, horrific docco. I hope so, because I think I would take something away from it. But right now I’m just keeping it on my To Do list. Applause, plaudits, kudos and all that to you who had the stomach to do it.
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