Every year, Japanese fishermen drive approximately 250 dolphins into Taiji Cove where they are evaluated and separated, then sold to area aquariums, driven back out to sea or slaughtered as a cheap substitute for whale meat in the local markets.
The method for slaughtering these animals is to drive them into the shoreline, corral them, tie them together in bunches by their tales, pull them back out to sea to the killing grounds and then sever their spinal cords by inserting a long metal rod just behind their head. This, according to Japan’s Fisheries Agency, is supposed to shorten the harvest time and kill the dolphins more quickly than the old method.
But after video of these killings was leaked showing fisherman repeatedly inserting the metal rods over and over into the backs of dolphins while they wail and thrash in agony, their family members watch in horror and the sea turns red with blood, there has been global outcry of the practice from conservation groups and animal rights groups.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy called for an end to the practice in a tweet.
“Deeply concerned about the inhumanness of drive hunt dolphin killing,” she wrote.
Japan bristles at what it calls a Western attack on its culture, saying the Taiji dolphin hunt is a cultural practice that dates back centuries.
But this is no excuse for what they are doing, no cultural justification for separating dolphin families for swimming with dolphin attractions, or violating their own laws for the humane slaughter of animals, which requires the animals to be unconscious before they are killed.
There is no need for Japan to continue this practice. They are no longer a subsistence culture relying on this meat for their survival but, rather, one of the richest nations in the world. If all dolphin meat left the market, only dolphin meat enthusiasts would notice.
Culture is not static, but rather evolves as our understanding of the world around us evolves. What we have learned about dolphins — their intense family bonds, their incredibly long memories, the dangers of eating their meat, which has a high concentration of mercury — should be enough to stop this practice.
Dolphins have deeply complex and rich social lives. They have names for each other and a language. They imagine and dream. One University of Chicago study found that dolphins can remember the unique calls of their friends and family even after 20 years of separation, meaning the memory of watching their parents being slaughtered in the Taiji Cove will haunt a young dolphin well into its adult life.
Human beings used to do many horrifying things to nature and each other in the name of culture and superstition. We have grown out of most of them. Mayans used to sacrifice their enemies and feed their blood to the gods, the Aztecs used to eat the hearts of their enemies to gain power, and the Highlanders in Scotland used to cut off the heads of their foes and hang them from their doorposts or from their belts, because the head was the spiritual power of the body. None of these things are widely practiced anymore, and if they are, they are widely condemned.
Japan should give up this annual dolphin hunt, recognize and embrace the beautiful parts of their culture and let this antiquated and barbaric practice sink into the sea.
