Barbarian Cowards

(Artist credit:  Jim Warren)

Hot on the heels of The Cove winning this year's Oscar for Best Documentary, is a new TV reality docu-drama called the Dolphin Warriors.  What's that?  Well you've heard of the Whale Wars.  The Animal Planet is working in concert with the people from The Cove and filming them for episodes that are projected to begin airing on TV this summer or fall.   Keep an eye out for this one!  Anything that gets more people aware and active on this issue has my full support.

Have you seen Pirate for the Sea?  It is a two hour documentary that focuses on Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson.  It gives a brief history of his time with Greenpeace, how he came to form the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and the things he does around the globe to raise awareness and to get directly involved in saving marine mammals.  A lot of people associate him with saving the whales, but he's also very involved in preventing shark finning and in his ongoing battle with the Canadian government over their annual harp seal cull.

If you have not yet seen this, I highly recommend it.  Be forewarned, however, that there are some pretty awful and graphic scenes showing various marine mammals being slaughtered.   There was a scene showing a barbarian coward seal killer just standing over a helpless harp seal and clubbing it to death.   I'm not a violent person and I abhor violence, but I wanted nothing more, in that very moment, than to reach through the television screen with my own club and bash this coward's head in.  

That's exactly what they are - barbarian cowards.  Words do not do justice in describing the rage I feel in witnessing such horrific acts against our marine friends.  It shows a complete lack of respect for our environment, nature, fellow living beings, and more broadly, our very planet.  It also obviously shows an utter lack of regard for oneself to engage in such an evil and cruel act.  

How would people feel if a harpoon was shot at them while they were minding their own business in the ocean?  Or feeling a knife cutting off your arms akin to the shark finning and then being thrown back overboard - alive.   Or a club being repeatedly bashed against your skull until your last dying breath?  Or being herded into a cove that soon turns blood red as all your dolphin friends, and ultimately you, get slaughtered and bleed out to a slow and painful death?

If you're against the harp seal hunt, you should check out this site:  Harp Seals

Much like Japan defends it's barbaric killing of whales and attributes it to "culture," Canada does the same thing in defense of their cowardly bashing of seal pups.  Only public pressure from around the world and a severe economic loss will wake up the Canadian government.  

Just because there's a possibility there won't be a seal cull this year, doesn't mean the battle is won.  Please remain vigilante on this issue by directly contacting the Canadian PM.   If you are not aware of what this is all about or why the big deal over this, please check out About the Canadian Seal Hunt and read up.

Will Japan ever get their stubborn harpoons out of their asses and finally listen to reason?  Will they ever realize that killing whales for research is not only a bogus lie on their part, but is completely unnecessary in order to conduct said research?  New Zealand is taking a stand that killing whales for research is NOT needed and will be arguing their case at the IWC this June.  Go New Zealand!

Talk has died down quite a bit from the Sea World Orlando incident a couple weeks ago.  I guess a lot of people really just don't care.  If they did, they'd have started boycotting Sea World immediately and the parks would be either completely shut down by now or in danger of bankruptcy.  This is an interesting article:  How Can Sea World Manage Tragedy, Criticism While Maintaining Business Brand?

Excerpt:

SeaWorld executives, he said, “have no interest in creating an environment where animals are not happy and not safe. ... Yes, they are in swimming pools. There’s no question. They’re also in an environment where they are taken care of.”

Color me stupid, but that sounds like an oxymoron.  Putting a 12,000 pound Orca in a swimming pool and say "they are taken care of."   

Another excerpt:

University of Florida professor Robert W. Emerson said he sees no easy way for SeaWorld to alter dramatically its business model in the short term. It would be like McDonald’s or Wendy’s abandoning hamburgers and scrapping their menus because of health concerns about beef.

“It’s difficult to do that without conceding what they’ve done up until now has been wrong,” said Emerson, a legal-studies expert. “If that’s your product, it’s a little hard to go too far away from it without saying there is something wrong with your product.”

Wow.  Comparing live marine mammals being held captive in the tiniest minature replication of the ocean that is possible, to hamburger.  I must be dense.  I don't get it. 

Here are a couple of suggestions on changing their so-called business model.  

(1)  Release the orcas and dolphins to sanctuaries.  It may not be the vast ocean but it's certainly better than swimming pools.  If the mammals were once wild, they could possibly be re-introduced back into the wild over time.  If they were never wild (hence, Sea World might actually cease supporting the slaughtering and capturing of dolphins around the globe and being sold to the likes of Sea World for their greedy purposes) then take care of them in the sanctuaries.  Who foots the bill?  Sea World and their subsidaries.   They created this mess, they should pay for it.

(2)  Educate people about our marine mammals and marine environments via hologram performances, big screen productions (like IMAX Theatres,) eco-friendly whale/dolphin watching tours, sales of DVD's, books, and other related materials that promote education and awareness, etc etc.

Anyone have any other suggestions or ideas?  I'd love to hear 'em.

Another excerpt from the above article:

“One more incident like this and the brand really would be in trouble,” Connor said. “You don’t want to cross your fingers and hope it doesn’t happen again. You can’t afford to do that.”

Well golly gee whiz.  Wasn't one incident enough for people to wake the hell up and stop buying tickets to Sea World?  Guess not.   The executives at Sea World are still raking in the bucks and the public continues to help them get richer - at a far greater expense to these mammals and ultimately our planet, than they'll ever fathom. :: shaking my head sadly :: 

"We share the Earth not only with our fellow human beings, but with all other creatures." ~ Dalai Lama ~

I couldn't have said it better myself.