The village that the Oscar-winning documentary was made about doesn’t really care that it has been painted in a horrible, bloody light. Although all of the bleeding heart liberal transexuals in the Oscars crowd greatly supported the documentary, dolphin hunting isn’t as horrible as it was portrayed in the movie. According to the Associated Press:
The village of 3,500 people has been hunting dolphins and whales since the early 1600s. It calls itself “Whale Town” and has a massive pair of whale statues looming over the main road. “The Cove” refers to Taiji and its dolphin fishing as “a little town with a really big secret,” but local councilman Hisato Ryono said there is nothing to hide.
“Everyone around here knows about it. The water nearby turns red during the hunt. The actual killing is done in a concealed area because it is unpleasant to look at, as is true of killing cows or pigs or any other animal,” said Ryono, who says he was tricked into appearing in the film.
To this dolphin hunting town in Japan, nothing is wrong with the slaughter of dolphins. We may think they look cute and that their having sex with each other for fun is adorable… but they are no better than cows. Cows are cute and are even worshipped in different countries – yet we put them in inhumane conditions, slaughter them endlessly, and eat them in our Big Macs daily.
In fact, the country of Japan is aware that the town (and others) hunt dolphins. The government even put a quota on how much the people are allowed to kill:
The Japanese government allows about 19,000 dolphins to be killed each year. Taiji hunts about 2,000 dolphins every year for meat — less than other places — but is singled out in part because of its “oikomi” method of herding and killing them near the shore.
The killing and trade of dolphins is not new in Japan, as well as in other countries. So every American who cries at the sight of a dead dolphin needs to realize they are just animals, just like the baby cows we slaughter to make veal. Young, tender, bloody veal.
Not to mention, dolphins aren’t pussies. They can bludgeon sharks to death. And humans. And pretty much anything else that takes a dip in the ocean. So even though the golden, genital-lacking man was awarded to The Cove for being an awesome documentary about the horrifying hunt of dolphins…. Japan doesn’t care.
And after this convincing article, neither do we.
March 9, 2010 at 4:31 pm
you guy’s suck.
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March 10, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Cows aren’t self aware, don’t live in family pods, don’t communicate with each other, etc. They are not the same. Try to educate yourself before you write about something you don’t understand. Dolphin meat also has a high mercury content, when the Taiji people start having kids with birth defects they might start caring. And we eat far too much red meat in this Country, factory farming is out of control and it’s not excuse for our pathetic farming practices.
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April 5, 2010 at 12:34 am
They have been doing it since the 1600′s. When do you think those birth defects are gonna start showing up?
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March 1, 2011 at 7:13 pm
its due to our pollution that the murcury levels have risen so th emeat is now unsafe!
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April 26, 2011 at 5:59 am
So if a friend of mine is single, has no family, and has a low IQ, I can kill him?
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July 18, 2011 at 6:41 am
No. Because his SPECIES has shown the ability to think, communicate and has conscious thought and decision makings skills. There are lines in this world. Right and wrong do exist. Killing a dog is not the same as killing a goat. Killing a cow is not the same as killing a horse. Killing a dolphin is not the same as killing a tuna. No tuna’s are used to guard our naval fleet in ports and find sea mines. No goat has ever dragged their owner from a burning house, found a avalanche victim or helped a blind person live a better life. Cows cant communicate with humans,or show personality traits like loyalty.
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August 22, 2011 at 4:01 am
Yes, yes you should. You know why. Cause he has downsyndrome and aids
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August 22, 2011 at 4:03 am
Yes, yes you should. He has aids and downnnnzzzz
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August 31, 2011 at 1:22 am
Cows are actually very intelligent and do communicate with each other continuously all day. They may not have quite the IQ of a Dolphin but like all mammals are highly intelligent and more closely related to Humans than you might think
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March 11, 2010 at 6:14 am
Your so ignorant, Im a 17y/o high school student and I know more then you on the subject. Cows and Dolphins? Did you really compare these two? There are no similarities. And thats the only way for Japan to win this fight is to keep making bogus claims to feed the young un-educated people. This is ridiculous. SaveLolita.com
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March 13, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Whoever wrote this article is a fucking idiot, Cows are the same as Dolphins?
MORON
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April 4, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I agree with you. Although I am ackowledged with the difference between Doplhins and Cows on their intelligence level, I still consider them as animals. We human beings harvest from the nature endlessly. This is a common phenomenon everywhere on the earth. There is nothing we can criticize a country on hunting for a specific sort of animal.
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April 22, 2010 at 2:23 pm
ahh, I’m Japanese and grew up with eating whales. (It’s pretty normal in Japan)
I totally agree with this article.
Compare with cows totally make sense to me.
Why cows, but dolphins? Just because they are cute? Just because dolphins are friends of human being???
I think people should not stick their nose into other culture.
And thanks for people who is worried about our health, but American health care is much worse than ours.
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August 28, 2010 at 3:31 am
I agree 100% animals are animals, as long as they are killed swiftly and with the least amount of cruelty, we humans have every Right to harvest and utilize them, regardless of species.
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January 23, 2011 at 8:07 pm
uhmm do u have no heart Katie dolphins are smart creatures unlike cows how could u say that! stupid japanese girl
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January 23, 2011 at 8:08 pm
sorry i didn’t call you a “stupid japanese girl” that was my brother sorry
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August 28, 2010 at 2:15 am
Kate, your people are disgusting. Might as well eat dogs you sick freak.
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April 26, 2011 at 11:25 am
Some cultures do eat dog meat. Calling someone a “sick freak” simply because you do not share the same cultural norms and societal regulations as them only serves to point out your own ignorance, lack of education and lack of international exposure.
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August 29, 2010 at 8:51 pm
It might help if you actually watched “The Cove.” Those dolphins are terrified! They’ve been rounded up and left in that cove for twenty-four hours! How is that right? There are INTERNATIONAL laws banning whaling but are dolphins protected? Under the statues of the IWC (International Whaling Commission) anything smaller than an Orca is not protected; oh wait the IWC doesn’t do a great job protecting the big whales either. They banned whaling in ’86 a year later Japan tripled it’s kills of dolphins and porpoises and started lethal “research programs” on large whales. The IWC is a JOKE! They’ve done next to nothing to protect whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
What did they do make it “illegal” to hunt whales? Big deal countries (Japan) don’t listen to those laws!
Kate might I add it is not illegal to eat a cow! If the IWC would get it’s ass in gear it would be illegal to eat a dolphin!
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January 2, 2011 at 11:52 pm
Yes we kill cows, and yes america has problems, but that does not mean killing dolphins is justified. If they were killed in a humane way which regulators are trying to promote in america then there wouldnt be such a big issue. There is no STRICT regulation on how the dolphins are killed. They are tortured for more then 24 hours put into a situation of constant terror. If these fishing villages cannot figure out a way to fish for dolphins without such horrible conditions then they should not be allowed to fish for dolphins. If they can figure out a way then let them eat the mercury filled meat, sooner or later they will die from mercury poisoning the less ignorant people the better.
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January 23, 2011 at 4:30 pm
I am doing a research project on the slaughtering of dolphins in japan and i was wondering if anyone can give me a website that would help me in finding information. I have to make a powerpoint presentation about it and i am totally against the slaughter of dolphins. Can anyone help me?
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April 12, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I am also doing a powerpoint on the slaughtering of dolphins. Pull up by typing the mudering of dolphins. then maybe Katie will understand that dolphins are as intelligent as we are. They are trapped because of ignorance. I wonder if Katie eats humans, they are intelligent too.Hmmmm, makes one wonder why the world is screwed up?
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April 12, 2011 at 1:53 pm
if dolphins are as smart as us, how come we pwns them all
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January 23, 2011 at 8:23 pm
its bad, but not that bad…. so long as they dont wipe them out or anything.
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February 8, 2011 at 10:42 pm
For the people who eat dolphin your fucking idiots. Dolphins have very high levels of mercury that is dangerous, your basically handing contaminated food to your kids and saying here eat until you die.
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April 12, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Does Katie want to eat humans to or do you?
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April 12, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Hey Katie, I hope you moo your ass off when you come back as a cow. Then we’ll see how you feel. Moooooooooooo!
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May 24, 2011 at 4:41 pm
WOOOOWW OBVIUSLY WHO EVER WROTE THIS HAS NO BALLS.
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August 22, 2011 at 12:11 pm
f**k all of you sick, arrogant cunts who pick and choose which animals to feel sorry for.
oh, because dolphins just happened to seem “cute” to humans, you all cry out your hearts for them. well boo fucking hoo, that’s your EGO. human, self-righteous ego.
go learn about how dolphins bully porpoises to death. thats nature for you.
“its ok to kill cows because they don’t have feelings!” “i feel bad for dolphins because they’re mammals and they seem so nice!” that way of thinking, like blind political correctness, is what DISGUSTS me, a lot more than a traditional whale hunt.
lemme guess, in your pyramid of animals to feel sorry for, dolphins, rabbits and horses are at the top, right? cuz they’re so cute and nice and friendly, right? well they just so HAPPENED to take on physical characteristics which humans just so happened to find pleasant.
there’s something very, very wrong with die-hard animal activists. it makes me sick when you attack a culture different from your own just because its hard for you to understand. americans praise carrying guns around but will criticize a traditional hunting practice of 500 years.
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August 28, 2011 at 6:22 am
why do we have to murder any animal for food?
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September 12, 2011 at 3:03 am
I have to write a speach on dolphin slaughtering and I’m finding it really hard cause every time I think about it I start to cry
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September 29, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Seriously guys…grow a heart..the people that agree with the jerk that wrote this are just worthless to this human rase. You guys should be the ones being rid of. Your so pathetic. Destroyers of your home!!
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October 1, 2011 at 7:49 pm
The killing of a sentient being. Sentient meaning this being is self aware and conscious of its own existence. Do you remember the part in The Cove when a dolphin was blowing a bubble/oxygen ring in the water and nosing it around? He was showing off! He was saying “Hey check me out, how cool is this, its entertaining hey?” He was communicating on a level that no other animal can communicate with human beings, not even apes. Dogs might learn a trick you teach them and do it for you to please you. Dogs can be loyal and apes can learn sign language. But the dolphin is something else. Its so arrogant to presume that all animals are the same. Human beings are animals so with that kind of thinking there’s no differentiation there either. Of course the unnecessary suffering of any animal is unacceptable but this senseless slaughter of dolphins for meat that is essentially toxic seems senseless. When whales and dolphins, depending on the species, are either endangered or close to it, the idea that the Japanese are hunting, not just in their own vicinity but around the world, paying poor developing countries to fish their stock is purely self serving, short sighted and aborrhent.These people are disgusting and ignorant.
Something that really stood out in my mind was the Japanese saying, “A nail that stands out must be banged down.” Individuality and beliefs that challenge the consensus will not be tolerated. In my understanding of Japanese culture it is extremely difficult and discouraged to go against the wants and expectations of the group. One beneficial thing about western culture is that individuality is encouraged. If the Japanese won’t speak out against this, then we have to. Its own world, they do not have the right to do this, its wrong, totally wrong.
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December 16, 2011 at 10:51 am
Okay, it seems that “The Cove” is not only promoting the humane treatment of dolphins, it’s also promoting racism, or that’s what I gather from these comments. There’s a number of reasons why this movie is failing to change minds in Japan, and it stems largely from culture and the film’s portrayal of the Japanese. I speak both English (first language) and Japanese, so I can see both sides through my interactions with the Japanese, who are NOT a barbaric group.
First of all, I’d like to share my two cents on animals. I personally believe that all animals are sentient beings. Watch the documentary “The Emotional World of Farm Animals” (not as violent as “The Cove”) and tell me you still justify the slaugter of farm animals. They’re intelligent creatures, but just because we as humans are unable to read their emotions in the way we can read other emotions, we tend to write them off as expendable. Also, you should really check out Koko, the gorilla, in depth if you want to understand the sentience of apes.
This documentary fails to connect with the Japanese for two reasons. The first is that they don’t understand why Americans, and the West in general, puts different values on different lives. To them, to project guilt upon them for the killing of dolphins is hypocritical. You see, the Japanese were vegetarians (they also ate local fish) for many years until the West reintroduced the custom of eating meat to them. At that time, they thought we were the barbaric ones. By and large, the Japanese have always considered life to be precious – all of it. You cannot put life on a hierarchy and say, “Well, my cat is more valuable than that pheasant, so I think it’s okay to shoot pheasants.” It makes no sense to them, so for us with our hamburger-loving culture to hate on them when they kill dolphins (remember, we routinely kill more livestock than they kill dolphins) reeks of hypocrocy and ethnocentrism. There’s just a huge cultural gap here that isn’t going to be spanned by attacking each other.
Look at it this way. If you go to youtube and watch the documentary “The Emotional World of Farm Animals”, which seeks to establish farm animals as rich, complex creatures, and still eat bacon (scientists have determined that pigs are self-aware, although I believe all animals are), hamburgers, and chicken, then you’ll know why the Japanese still consume dolphin meat. By the way, dolphin meat is waning in popularity, and has been for decades.
The second is that the documentary portrays the Japanese as being particularly barbaric, which they aren’t. They’re some of the most polite people I’ve ever met, and they actually have a great deal of respect for the sea. Whale watching and diving resorts/schools/shops are some of the best in the world in Japan, and their video game series, known as “Endless Ocean” in the US, actively promotes conservation. This movie appears to them as a film done by foreigners to portray them as barbaric for this specific town’s tradition of dolphin hunting. It would be like if China filmed a documentary about slaughterhouses in America and tried to work it so that Americans appeared to be careless, evil people who gladly destroy life to fuel our McDonalds and KFCs. Most of us would grow defensive.
This documentary is percieved as an attack on Japanese culture, and is a racist piece of work, or, as they would call it, anti-Japanese. The Japanese have no word for racism, but they clearly see it in this film. The film nit-picks a lot of things, including prisons in Japan, which is hypocritical as well, considering that the Japanese incarcerate far less people than the United States. If anything, this knee-jerk reaction will prolong the dolphin killing instead of ending it.
The lack of action isn’t because the Japanese are culturally beaten into submission, which seems to be what you’re insinuating, but because they don’t want the West to be able to succeed in forcing their own culture and ideals onto them. It would be about recognizing American superiority, not saving dolphins.
Finally, dolphins can be horribly vicious. We in America tend to think of Flipper. Dolphins are playful, smiling, endearing creatures. I agree that most of the time they are, and to be able to swim with wild dolphins is a dream of mine. However, dolphins have a murderous streak themselves. Lately they’ve been on a porpoise killing spree, pursuing the animals for half an hour at a time, using their sonar to locate vital organs, killing them, and then leaving the bodies to wash up on shore – not even eating them. They’ve also been killing their own babies in large numbers as well. All of this has researchers baffled.
The point of that was to show that dolphins can be like orcas, lions, bears, and other animals that are regularly killed (legal or not) that we barely acknowledge, thus solidifying, in the Japanese’s minds, that this documentary was picking solely on them.
Koko the Gorilla expressed outrage when she accidentally viewed a documentary about the killing of gorillas for meat, pointing to a coupon for regular beef one the scientists had and signed, “Much shame there,” but not many people got outraged over the killing of gorillas.
The Chinese used to eat dogs, and while many of us today make fun of them for it, no one is particularly outraged over it. And many other cultures and countries eat things and kill creatures in ways that are completely barbaric to us, yet the outrage isn’t there. How many black rhinos are killed, horns stolen, and left to rot? How many people care?
If you want to save the dolphins, then don’t attack Japan through these kinds of documentaries, because that comes off as personal attack, and the Japanese will not back down from it. Your friends are more influential than your enemies, so why not make some friends instead of watching this documentary and determining that a whole race of people are evil?
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