World protest escalates against Japan's killing of dolphins

Carol Forsloff - Japan's killing of dolphins has incensed many countries, so that now the
protests that once were in the streets are swelling in social media,
where nearly a million people are protesting now.

 The cruel way the dolphins are killed annually by the thousands have

sparked protests for a number of years against the Japanese.  In 2005,
for example, an environmental group helped organize and reported on the
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute and One
Voice.  In San Francisco France protested outside the Japanese Consulate
and its protesters were joined by other activists for an international
protest October 8.


That same year, in 2005, there were forty-four demonstrations in front
of Japanese embassies and consulates with participation from 26
countries against the massacre of dolphins and the cruel way they are
killed.


Social media, however, can often outdistance the once tried-and-true
other methods of initiating large response toward any particular cause.
On Facebook there are presently more than 800,000 people already signed
up for a cause to save the dolphins out of 1 million signatures
requested.  The Facebook way allows one person to request another to
join a cause while that person, in turn, solicits others.  Rapid
organization can be developed in that fashion and is underway right now.


An environmentalist website
devotes itself to explaining how the operation of killing dolphins
begins and what justifications are made for killing these creatures.
An overview describes how the activity will be taking place next month,
the month of September, because the season for dolphin hunts is from
September to April and is explained by the Japanese as an attempt to
reduce the dolphin population so there is enough fish for fishermen in
the area.  Japan is also encouraging consumption of dolphin meat and
using it in pet food. 


It is the manner of death, in addition to the violation of certain
standards in the killing of these animals of the sea, that people most
resist, described like this:


"Occurring annually from September to April, the dolphin hunts are
regulated by the Japanese government and conducted by groups of
fishermen who herd hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dolphins and small
cetaceans into shallow bays by banging on partially submerged rods that
create a sonic barrier. The dolphins are then corralled into nets and
dispatched in a brutal manner: speared, hooked, hoisted into the air by
their tails, and finally eviscerated alive. The methods, say
researchers, result in a long and painful death for these intelligent
marine mammals."