THE COVE WINS OSCAR FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY

By Debbie Bulloch



Last October I wrote an article called The Dolphin Killing Fields.

In the article, I documented the slaughter of dolphins that occurs every year in the Japanese town of Taiji. The town of Taiji is located at the tip of the Kii peninsula, south of Kyoto. During the slaughter season, which runs from October through March, more than 3,000 small whales and striped, bottlenose and spotted dolphins have been slaughtered for meat that ends up on the tables of local homes and restaurants and in vacuum-packed bags in supermarkets. According to environmentalists, this is probably the single, largest annual cull of cetaceans – about 26,000 year-round around coastal Japan - in the world.

The dolphin hunts are notoriously brutal. Local dolphin hunters erect blue tarpaulin sheets to block the main viewing spots overlooking the cove where the killings take place to prevent picture taking. The hunt starts just outside the cove, where a small fleet of hunting boats surrounds a pod of migrating dolphins. The hunters then lower metal poles into the sea and bang them to frighten the animals and to disrupt their sonar. Once the panicking, thrashing dolphins are herded into the narrow cove, the hunters attack them with knives, turning the sea bloody red before dragging the wounded and dying animals to a harbor-side warehouse where the surviving dolphins are slaughtered.

In my article, I also mentioned a wonderful documentary film titled The Cove. In that film, the filmmakers document the terrible cruelty of the hunt, how these intelligent mammals are herded into a small cove and then beaten to death by the Japanese “fishermen.” The documentary is a powerful reminder of man’s cruelty to the animals that share our planet with us.

Tonight, during the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, The Cove, won an “Oscar” for best documentary film. Winning an Oscar will undoubtedly bring additional exposure to the plight of the Taiji dolphins. Maybe now Taiji’s residents will be persuaded to end the cruel and needless practice of the dolphin killing fields.

Congratulations to the men and women who worked in The Cove (Official Website).

SAD NEWS UPDATE:

San Diego police has just reported that the body of missing 14-year-old Amber Dubois was found buried in shallow grave just outside of San Diego.

Body of 14 year old girl is found by San Diego Police

There will be no justice until the world stops being a scary and unsafe place for girls and young women.

Rest in Peace Amber. You and Chelsea were two bright lights in an otherwise dark and worrisome world.

We offer our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to Amber’s parents, family and friends.