November 8, 2007...11:26 pm
The Slaughter Of The Dolphins
Japanese fishermen slaughter dolphins. Dolphin meat is toxic so why? Why are countless dolphins trapped in nets for slaughter? Pilot whales are also in the carnage. The mercury levels in these two animals making the meat extremely toxic.
This massacre of the dolphins is by no means a new thing. It’s been part of the culture for centuries but prior to the world of the Internet it wasn’t well known. Animal activists have recently given a spotlight on the practice. The activists have used celebrities to help get the word out on the barbaric nature of this type of fishing. The activists have taken measures in their own hands at times destroying the property of the fishermen. It’s been the cause of arrests and bad feelings between the two groups.
“One fisherman told me if the whalers could kill me, they would,” says the best-known protester, Ric O’Barry, who once trained dolphins for the 1960’s TV series ‘Flipper.’ “But I always try to stay on the right side of the law. If I get arrested, I’m out of this fight.”
Dolphin meat has often been used in school lunches. The meat is fairly cheap selling at about $16 US for a kilo. Schoolchildren know the difference between whale and dolphins, it’s not hard dolphin meat smells of the toxins within.
One fisherman compared the “fishing process” to that of the United States slaughterhouses. He wasn’t that far off and he was right in saying that it’s out in the open. Visible. When people see something horrific it stays with them. Slaughterhouses are behind walls.
“If you walked into an American slaughterhouse for cows it wouldn’t look very pretty either,” says one, who identifies himself only as Kawasaki. “The killing is done in the open here so it looks worse than it is.” Most are descended from families that have been killing and eating the contents of the sea around Taiji for generations and reject arguments that dolphins are ‘special.’ Says Kawasaki: “They’re food, like dogs for the Chinese and Koreans.”
In August Assemblymen Junichiro Yamashita, 59, and Hisato Ryono, 51, from the nearby whaling city of Taiji announced the high mercury and methylmercury levels that had been found in samples of the meat of pilot whales that had been butchered. The pilot whale is actually the largest of the dolphin family. Every year 2,300 dolphins are slaughtered in Taiji. The local fishermen herd the dolphins into small coves where they spear the animals and hack them to death. In Japan it is estimated that 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered a year.
Yamashita explained, “We’re not against traditional whaling, but we heard claims that pilot whales are poisoned with mercury, and we discovered that some of this meat from a (drive fishery) was fed to kids in school lunches.”
“We tested some samples — purchased at the Gyokyo supermarket in Taiji and Super Center Okuwa in the nearby city of Shingu,” Yamashita said, adding they were “shocked” by the results.
If the meat wasn’t toxic though would the outrage still be there? Of course it would. But…and by no means am I saying that this practice is right, it is tradition. We in the West do not agree with the slaughter of animals and it happens even here in North America. The clubbing of baby seals is just one instance that comes to mind.
The fact of the matter though in this case is the meat that comes from these slaughters is no longer safe for human consumption. It may have been in the past before pollutants filled the waterways. Now it is not only unseemly to slaughter the animals but by doing so puts a nation’s young at risk when their families prepare it for them to eat. For that reason alone it should be outlawed.
If the people in Japan were more educated by their government on the danger of eating mercury filled meat they would no doubt be up in arms about this practice. The animal activist are right to be outraged at the barbarity of the “fishing” but the key at least to me is the safety issues. Those issues being more in the news have a better chance at stopping the slaughter of the dolphins.
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