The Unknown Slaughter : Animal Slaughter

The cameras caught on tape Japanese fishermen slaughter dolphins by driving a pin into their necks, slitting their throats with knives or by piercing them with long sticks from their boats. The video shows us that the dolphin slaughter is actually happening by showing firsthand accounts of proof. How do you know that their video is real and not Photoshoped? Well, why would the filmmakers got through all the trouble (security guards, hills, and cliffs) that they did to get that video and just Photoshop it in the end? As I mentioned before, the movie showed reliable video of people who were near the secret cove being shooed away by Japanese fishermen. This shows that something terrible happens because they don't want people to see what goes on there and try to hide it from the public. Dolphin slaughter is a good reason to keep something hidden because it is so terrible.

Imagine you are a dolphin swimming happily in the ocean with the other dolphins. Suddenly, you hear something terrible, and that makes you feel extremely uncomfortable. You swim towards somewhere “safe” to get away from that terrible sound. However, when you get in, you realize it is a trap! You have been caught! You might be sent to an aquarium or killed to be made into sushi. This unfortunate fate is not a dream, but it is a sad reality for hundreds of thousands of innocent dolphins. They are endangered of becoming extinct and their main predators are us, humans. Our society needs to do something to preserve and protect our precious dolphins. Dolphins should be saved because they are an endangered species, it is cruel to kill such intelligent animals and they are not even safe to eat.

In the wild, these whales live between 50 to 80 years. With such a high mortality rate with the breeding and captivity of these killer whales, big companies like SeaWorld still continue their day to day operations, to ensure that their revenue never stops increasing. But the captivity of these whales poses a dangerous threat to the trainers that are hired to perform with the whales. There are only a few documented deaths and a long list of attacks on trainers that SeaWorld has disclosed from the public. With the numbers rising on the attacks of trainers by whales, SeaWorld has done everything possible to cover up the fact that these attacks are happening because of the whales’ captivity. SeaWorld’s prized killer whale Tilikum, was involved in a death of a trainer, and yet 13 months later was rejoined with SeaWorld’s cast, and has become the most popular killer whale in the show business.

Dolphins should be considered to be non-human persons as they are highly intelligent, almost identical to humans. It is because they have a range of emotions just like us, therefore having different personalities. However, humans don’t realize these specific characteristics of dolphins and use them for their personal benefit. Every human being has his/her own rights; consequently dolphins just being like human beings should have their own liberty and self-determination to live on their

The general reason for a documentary is to put forth factual information while attempting to convince the viewing audience of a specific point of view. The film crew behind ‘The Cove’ does this in a way that is informative and accurate, while presenting the information in a manner that allows the viewer to draw their own opinions. ‘The Cove’ follows famous Dolphin Trainer-turned-activist Ric O’Barrey into the dangerous land of Taiji, Japan, where dolphin genocide is occurring. The ‘dolphin trade’ that is taking place kills thousands of dolphins every year. While those behind the dolphin-capture and trade suggest that it is a Japanese tradition to murder dolphins for food and other

To begin, Earle opens with a discussion about the myriad of sea life that once thrived in oceans across the globe. She then describes the effects overfishing, pollution, and global warming have on sea mammals, fish, and shellfish. In the early 20th century, new technology allowed fishermen to venture farther into open water. As a result, many mammals such as walruses and whales, which once found solace in deep dark water, could no longer hide in the high seas. Especially between 1900-1950, fishermen caught whales for their blubber, which was vital for kerosene lamps. Today, mammals such as dolphins are often swept up as bycatch during mass operations to catch fish such as tuna.

And whale killing has been happing since the 12th century. There are many varieties of threats that are going toward the whales, but most of them are direct results of human activities. These can include hunting for food, scientific research, or even used for beauty products. Eating whale meat is an old tradition it is a very impenetrable, or impossible to understand, as they say. Whale meat has been used in everyday foods in japan, Norway, and Iceland. They say if you eat whale meat you are brave and are given power. The amount of meat being sold has gone down but isn’t completely gone. On the other hand, Japan has a catch, they barley eat whale so why do they continue to kill them? The answer: scientific research. Japan has been stating that they have been killing whales for scientific research, but yet none of its go towards that. A scientific permit allows japan to be able to hunt whales. By having this it allows them to use, sell, or give away the whale meat. Whale is also used in everyday makeup as well. Their blubber and spermaceti (the waxy substance from the head of sperm whales) was great things for lipstick. Whales are used for things you might not even know, and that is what’s killing the going extinct

Several justifications that Norway and Japan have for the endless massacre of these innocent whales are: it is a long established Norwegian "tradition" of whaling, Japan hunts whales under "scientific research", and Both countries argue that minke whales are not endangered and that an uncontrolled population of the whales would threaten valuable fish stocks.

The last several decades have seen the accelerating trend of protecting animal right, and plenty of people regard certain acts which do not respect animal right as brutal, barbarous. Today, dolphin hunting is also included in such view by some western animal right protesters. However this debate is not about animal right. Rather, this controversy is on whether the majority has the right to oppress the minority, and whether we can prioritize given species than the others. Therefore I cast doubt on their arguments, and even though I am not active advocate of dolphin hunting, I would like to say dolphin hunting should not be prohibited for following three reasons.

Human constructed dams separate the dolphins, leading to small populations that are hard to build up. Pollution of their river habitats, caused by humans, are killing the dolphins as well as their food sources. Other than pollution and dams, fishing boats harm and kill dolphins. For one, dolphins get caught in fishing nets, and are harmed that way. Two, people try to chase them away from scaring of the fish, often hurting them in this process. Three, they are hunted to be used for bait for the catfish industry. Four, the Amazon river dolphins are naturally curious, and will come up to boats and get hit by the boat’s propeller. This behavior of curiosity, along with others, contribute to their extinction, besides humans. A behavior that contributes to the Amazon river dolphins being endangered is that they are solitary. This leaves them without protection, and it heightens their chance of being killed. This is, because if you are in a large crowd, the chances of you being the one eaten are lower. However, the smaller the group, the more likely you will be eaten. Another trait that is they are active during the day. Their predators are nocturnal, so this leaves them susceptible to attacks since they are not awake to defend themselves. All these factors, outside and trait wise, cause the Amazon river dolphin to be threatened with extinction. If the Amazon river dolphins were to go extinct, the

October 19 2009, Paul Sheehan wrote an article on “A Bloody Mob of Hypocrites.” This story is absolutely disgraceful about the herding and slaughtering of dolphins near the Japanese fishing town of Taiji. This story was airing on channel nines ’60 Minutes.’ The viewers of this story were horrified, and absolutely irritated.

Dolphins are known as some of the most intelligent creatures so why are they being used for profit and abusive entertainment purposes? In the documentary “Cove”, former dolphin trainer and activist Ric O'Barry's quest to document the dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. In the 1960s, O'Barry helped capture and train the five wild dolphins who shared the role of "Flipper" in the hit television series of the same name. The show was very popular, and it fueled widespread public adoration of dolphins, further influencing the development of marine parks that included dolphins in their attractions. After one of the dolphins, in O'Barry's opinion, committed

It is known that the Dolphin and the Whale both have almost a mystical friendliness about them. Dolphins can help treat people with anything ranging from a learning disability to a nerve injury (Goodstein). Both Dolphins and Whales are highly intelligent creatures and yet while we can communicate with them through words or a modified sign language, we still don’t know how their brain works (Goodstein). Dolphins can do a lot of good for a lot of people, but are they really happy living in a facility? The Dolphins and Whales are at the top of the food chain, they both play an important role in the water and their habitat, and yet they are endangered. There are so many ways you can help save them, it’s all about the little things that can make a big difference.

After I watched the documentary , “The Cove”, I was very moved and impacted. I think that dolphins are very smart and cute and I don't know why anybody would want to kill them for meat and use them in shows. This documentary really shows the bad things that Japan is doing to these magnificent creatures.

The film makes a valid point that the dolphins are a smart race and they should be preserved and valued. But everyday dolphins and other animals are exploited in zoos and amusement parks and are kept in captivity. Ric O'Barry even talks about his own experience with a dolphin committing suicide in his arms, and this is what first peaked his interest in helping sea creatures, but he ended up in Taiji, Japan instead of