Protesters stage world anti-dolphin slaughter rally

Yahoo News 14 Oct 10;

MIAMI, Florida (AFP) – About 100 demonstrators, including Oscar-winning documentary maker Ric O'Barry, gathered Thursday outside the Japanese consulate in Miami in one of a series of rallies around the world to protest Japan's annual dolphin slaughter.

O'Barry, an American activist who won an Oscar for his documentary "The Cove" about the traditional dolphin round-up in Taiji, Japan, said the chain of protests would catch Tokyo's attention.

"I'm optimistic because if enough people protest around the world the Japanese government will be forced to stop issuing permits to do this," O'Barry told AFP.

"The problem is in Taiji, but the solution is in Tokyo, where the permitting process is. They are issuing permits to kill dolphins to sell the food to the Japanese people."

Similar rallies outside Japanese consulates and embassies were planned across Asia, Europe and the United States. Protestors displayed gruesome photos of the Taiji slaughter, where mortally wounded dolphins writhe in a sea of blood.

"All animals have their own emotions. Dolphins we know to be one of the most intelligent in the world, next to elephants and chimpanzees," said animal rights activist Claudia Emerson, demonstrating with three others outside the Japanese consulate on New York's Park Avenue.

Edda Ness, a lawyer, said the Japanese dolphin slaughter might be a tradition, but that didn't make it right. "Stoning people to death -- you could say that's an old tradition," she said. "That argument doesn't hold any moral weight."

The activists carried placards that read "Stop Killing" and "Japan. Don't let the dolphins disappear."

Every year, fishermen in Taiji herd about 2,000 dolphins into a shallow bay, select several dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks and harpoon the rest for meat.