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Taiji,Japan
Many of your have probably never heard of this small village half way around the world. You won't find many tourist brochures trying to lure you to this remote location. Although it is beautiful, it has tourist attractions, a gorgeous beach, 3 museums and festivals in summer and autumn. But these are not the reason I am writing about Tiaji, Japan. The reason I am writing about Taiji, Japan is not even the fact that it is the birthplace of Whaling and one of those museums I mention is a Whale museum.
The reason I am writing about Taiji, Japan is its brutal practice of herding Dolphins into a small cove, selling the selected ones to "amusement" parks around the world and slaughtering the ones that are not chosen. The way they do this is by knowing two things about the Dolphin. First, the dolphins have an annual migratory path that passes right past the killing cove, and second is that dolphins are very sensitive to sound. The fishermen line up all of their fishing boats just on the other side of this migratory path. They put long rods with flanges on the bottom down into the water and bang on them with hammers. This panics the Dolphins, who are sensitive to sound, and they flee into the cove. Once the dolphins are in the cove they put up nets and trap them there. Young, old, pregnant, it doesn't matter they are all scared into this cove where they are trapped.

After they have the Dolphins trapped, trainers from all over the world come and pick the dolphins they want for their park. These dolphins are then hauled off to be shipped to a park where they will be forced to live out their life in captivity as circus animals for the amusement of humans. Some of these parks have tiny dirty tanks. Some are overcrowded. And in a park in Japan, you can even eat Dolphin and whale meat as you watch them perform their tricks for you. These are the lucky ones. The others are herded into the killing cove. In this cove, hidden from sight, they are slaughter and their meat is sold as food, and even used in the schools. Dolphin meat is very high in mercury so it poses a threat to humans when eaten, yet they sell it in groceries, and feed it to school children. The Japanese people are not told of this threat to their health and the to the health of their children.

Let me take a moment to tell you a bit about dolphins. As I stated earlier, sound is the major sense for dolphins. Their sonar is so much better than anything man has been able to create. If you are in the wild swimming with dolphins, they can literally see right through you with their sonar. They can see your skeleton, your heartbeat and even if you are pregnant. This is not only their downfall in Tiaji but also one of the reasons they do not do well in captivity. In captivity they are put in a concrete tank, which is surrounded with music and screaming people anxious to see the next trick. This is the eason, if you were able to go to any of the fish houses at the locations you would see that their food is being spiked with Maalox or Tagamet. That is to keep the dolphins ulcers in check. They have these ulcers because they are under constant stress. Another fact about dolphins in the wild is that they travel around 40 miles a day. Imagine going from that to some small tank somewhere; forget about the way in which they get there. Some say that dolphins are some of the most intelligent creatures on earth. I don't know how they quantify intelligence, across species, but I definitely agree that they are extremely intelligent.
Can you imagine the stress of trying to figure out what just happened to them?

This brings us to the social aspects of the Dolphin. Dolphins are social animals. In the wild they live in pods of a dozen or more. If they happen on a place where there is a lot of food, several pods will come together and become super pods. They are not greedy or territorial they will welcome the new pods and share the great food source they happened upon. They communicate with whistles, clicks or other vocalizations. Membership within in the pod is fluid, as interchange is common, but don't mistake this for a lack of strong social bonds. If there is an injured Dolphin, another dolphin will stay with it, and go so far as to push it to the surface so it can breathe. There are also numerous accounts of Dolphins helping people, as well. They have been known to circle around people in the water to protect them from sharks, surfers have said that a Dolphin has even t-boned a shark that got to close and swimmers have told stories of how a dolphin took them to shore when they got out to far and could not make it back on their own.

I tell you these things because I want you to get a picture of the Dolphin. I want you to know, that they know what is happening to them and their friends and family in that little cove in Taiji. They understand the cries of distress as some are hauled off for captivity somewhere and they definitely know the cries of pain and fear coming from the killing cove. They are not just fish with no feelings , brain or strong social bonds. They are intelligent mammals that will risk their lives to help us from a shark, and this is how we repay them? I want to be clear on one last point. This is not a slam against the people of Japan. When they made the move "The Cove” they went out in streets of Japan and the people there had no idea what was going on in Taiji. When they were told, they too thought it was a horrible thing. I also know that the fishermen think they are protecting their catch, but they need to be taught that countless other places have protected the Dolphin and are still doing well fishing. But this killing cove in Taiji, has to be stopped. It is barbaric! I am closing this with a link from Sea Shepherd's page on What You Can Do. Please take a minute to look it over. Please help us stop this heinous act. Write a letter or an email, make a phone call. Please do something. Hopefully some of you will do several things. Thank you for reading this. Hopefully you will ask a few of your friends to read it, too. People need to know what is happening, now. I am also putting a link to a petition site. They have a goal of 100,000 signatures. The petition is going to the World organization for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). They have the power to stop this now. Please sign this petition and again, ask your friends to do the same. We can make a difference and stop this from happening to another Dolphin. They would do it for us.
Namaste´,
Tracy
Click here to see What you can do to help
Please click here and sign petition
photos are thanks to Save Japan's Dolphins and Ric O'Barry and used with their permission

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Home	Taiji,Japan Many of your have probably never heard of this small village half way around the world. You won't find many tourist brochures trying to lure you to this remote location. Although it is beautiful, it has tourist attractions, a gorgeous beach, 3 museums and festivals in summer and autumn. But these are not the reason I am writing about Tiaji, Japan. The reason I am writing about Taiji, Japan is not even the fact that it is the birthplace of Whaling and one of those museums I mention is a Whale museum. The reason I am writing about Taiji, Japan is its brutal practice of herding Dolphins into a small cove, selling the selected ones to "amusement" parks around the world and slaughtering the ones that are not chosen. The way they do this is by knowing two things about the Dolphin. First, the dolphins have an annual migratory path that passes right past the killing cove, and second is that dolphins are very sensitive to sound. The fishermen line up all of their fishing boats just on the other side of this migratory path. They put long rods with flanges on the bottom down into the water and bang on them with hammers. This panics the Dolphins, who are sensitive to sound, and they flee into the cove. Once the dolphins are in the cove they put up nets and trap them there. Young, old, pregnant, it doesn't matter they are all scared into this cove where they are trapped. After they have the Dolphins trapped, trainers from all over the world come and pick the dolphins they want for their park. These dolphins are then hauled off to be shipped to a park where they will be forced to live out their life in captivity as circus animals for the amusement of humans. Some of these parks have tiny dirty tanks. Some are overcrowded. And in a park in Japan, you can even eat Dolphin and whale meat as you watch them perform their tricks for you. These are the lucky ones. The others are herded into the killing cove. In this cove, hidden from sight, they are slaughter and their meat is sold as food, and even used in the schools. Dolphin meat is very high in mercury so it poses a threat to humans when eaten, yet they sell it in groceries, and feed it to school children. The Japanese people are not told of this threat to their health and the to the health of their children. Let me take a moment to tell you a bit about dolphins. As I stated earlier, sound is the major sense for dolphins. Their sonar is so much better than anything man has been able to create. If you are in the wild swimming with dolphins, they can literally see right through you with their sonar. They can see your skeleton, your heartbeat and even if you are pregnant. This is not only their downfall in Tiaji but also one of the reasons they do not do well in captivity. In captivity they are put in a concrete tank, which is surrounded with music and screaming people anxious to see the next trick. This is the eason, if you were able to go to any of the fish houses at the locations you would see that their food is being spiked with Maalox or Tagamet. That is to keep the dolphins ulcers in check. They have these ulcers because they are under constant stress. Another fact about dolphins in the wild is that they travel around 40 miles a day. Imagine going from that to some small tank somewhere; forget about the way in which they get there. Some say that dolphins are some of the most intelligent creatures on earth. I don't know how they quantify intelligence, across species, but I definitely agree that they are extremely intelligent. Can you imagine the stress of trying to figure out what just happened to them? This brings us to the social aspects of the Dolphin. Dolphins are social animals. In the wild they live in pods of a dozen or more. If they happen on a place where there is a lot of food, several pods will come together and become super pods. They are not greedy or territorial they will welcome the new pods and share the great food source they happened upon. They communicate with whistles, clicks or other vocalizations. Membership within in the pod is fluid, as interchange is common, but don't mistake this for a lack of strong social bonds. If there is an injured Dolphin, another dolphin will stay with it, and go so far as to push it to the surface so it can breathe. There are also numerous accounts of Dolphins helping people, as well. They have been known to circle around people in the water to protect them from sharks, surfers have said that a Dolphin has even t-boned a shark that got to close and swimmers have told stories of how a dolphin took them to shore when they got out to far and could not make it back on their own. I tell you these things because I want you to get a picture of the Dolphin. I want you to know, that they know what is happening to them and their friends and family in that little cove in Taiji. They understand the cries of distress as some are hauled off for captivity somewhere and they definitely know the cries of pain and fear coming from the killing cove. They are not just fish with no feelings , brain or strong social bonds. They are intelligent mammals that will risk their lives to help us from a shark, and this is how we repay them? I want to be clear on one last point. This is not a slam against the people of Japan. When they made the move "The Cove” they went out in streets of Japan and the people there had no idea what was going on in Taiji. When they were told, they too thought it was a horrible thing. I also know that the fishermen think they are protecting their catch, but they need to be taught that countless other places have protected the Dolphin and are still doing well fishing. But this killing cove in Taiji, has to be stopped. It is barbaric! I am closing this with a link from Sea Shepherd's page on What You Can Do. Please take a minute to look it over. Please help us stop this heinous act. Write a letter or an email, make a phone call. Please do something. Hopefully some of you will do several things. Thank you for reading this. Hopefully you will ask a few of your friends to read it, too. People need to know what is happening, now. I am also putting a link to a petition site. They have a goal of 100,000 signatures. The petition is going to the World organization for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). They have the power to stop this now. Please sign this petition and again, ask your friends to do the same. We can make a difference and stop this from happening to another Dolphin. They would do it for us. Namaste´, Tracy Click here to see What you can do to help Please click here and sign petition photos are thanks to Save Japan's Dolphins and Ric O'Barry and used with their permission
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