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Taiji Cove: 250 bottlenose dolphins await slaughter or captivity as selection begins | Taiji Cove: 250 bottlenose dolphins await slaughter or captivity as selection begins |
(2 days later) | |
More than 250 bottlenose dolphins have been rounded up by Japanese fisherman to be slaughtered for meat or sold into captivity, animal conservationists are warning. | More than 250 bottlenose dolphins have been rounded up by Japanese fisherman to be slaughtered for meat or sold into captivity, animal conservationists are warning. |
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) said dolphins were | |
corralled into the Taiji cove and held overnight as the town's | |
controversial annual hunt was underway. It said one dolphin died in | |
the process, and a rare young albino dolphin had been among those | |
being held captive by the fishermen. | |
The SSCS has been live streaming the events in the Cove and | |
posting updates on Twitter and Facebook, after announcing on Friday | |
five separate pods of bottlenose dolphins had been driven into the | |
cove. | |
The town of Taiji, | |
in the Higashimuro District, continues to hunt for small whales and | |
dolphins after commercial whaling was suspended in 1988. | |
The town was the subject of the 2009 documentary The Cove, which examined Japan's infamous dolphin hunting | |
culture and the controversial dolphin hunt that takes place in the | |
town between September and April annually. The film won the Academy | |
Award for Best Documentary the following year. | |
The group said the captive selection process began today. In a | |
Facebook post earlier on Saturday, the SSCS wrote: "250 plus | |
bottlenose dolphins were held in the killing cove for over 19 | |
hours. This morning after sunrise, dolphin killers and local | |
dolphin trainers entered the cove via skiff. | |
"The captive selection began shortly after 7am this morning as | |
the two pods were further divided to make it easier for the killers | |
to maneuver [sic] toward the shore. Babies were separated from | |
their mothers and herded under the tarps. | |
"The first of the captives that was taken this morning was | |
the rare white bottlenose calf. The killers hid the baby dolphin | |
under a tarp and transferred immediately to Taiji Whale Museum. | |
brightcove.createExperiences(); | |
"A total of 25 dolphins were kidnapped from the cove during the | |
eight-hour captive selection today. One dolphin did not survive the | |
traumatic process and was dragged to the butcher house. The | |
remaining 200 plus pod will be left divided and will be held for a | |
second night in the shallow waters of the cove until the captive | |
selection will resume at approximately 7am tomorrow morning." | |
Caroline Kennedy, The US ambassador to Japan tweeted her concern | |
following news of the hunt today. | |
Celebrities also joined in condemning the hunt, with comedian Ricky Gervais | |
calling for Twitter users to re-tweet the hashtag #tweet4taiji and | |
actress Kirsty Alley tweeting: "HUNDREDS of DOLPHINS awaiting | |
SLAUGHTER in #THECOVE ... JAPAN, STOP THIS HORROR!!" | |
Local fishermen defend the hunt as a centuries old local custom, | |
but conservationists consider the hunt slaughter. |