TOKYO (AP) - Hayden Panettiere and some fellow animal rights activists drew angry shouts and some shoving from fishermen in Japan when they tried to interfere with a dolphin hunt, according to video footage shot by the protesters.
The six activists from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd paddled out on surfboards to a cove in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan on Tuesday to interfere with the annual hunt.
Fishermen on a boat approached the activists and ordered them to leave, shoving some of them with a long pole. An angry fisherman later shouted in the face of one of the protesters on the road above the cove. There did not appear to be any injuries.
"This baby stuck its head out and kind of looked as us, and the thought that the baby is no longer with us is very difficult," Panettiere, who stars in the NBC show "Heroes," said after coming ashore.
The local fishermen and their supporters say hunting dolphins - in this case, pilot whales - is a Japanese custom that outsiders have no business interfering with.
"Whales and dolphins are traditionally being used (as resources) in Japan," said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the whaling section at the Japanese Fisheries Agency. "In this light, we cannot accept an argument simply based on emotional causes."
About 14,000 dolphins are killed for food in Japan every year.
Coastal dolphin hunts usually involve herding groups of the animals into a cove using sonar equipment, or by banging metal rods in the water, creating a sort of acoustic barrier. The mammals are then trapped using nets and divers are sent in to kill them.
You know, I really think this sucks. Being the animal lover I am. However, in all respect to intelligent thinking, how can I come down on the Japanese when we, as Americans, do the same thing pretty much, to 4 legged and 2 legged animals. Anyway, that's my take on this disturbing story.
Animalz Rule,
Bobby Sharpe reggae8@aol.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe
2 comments:
Thank you Hayden Panettiere, I'm not going to watch Heroes anymore.
What right do you have to decide for others what food animal is okay to kill? I hope you are a vegan, because pigs and cows are incredibly intelligent, and are Gods in some cultures - yet we put them in factory farms where they suffer all their life and slaughtered in the most inhuman ways.
So we should abandon eating beef and pork right? Never mind our own culture had decided they are food animals.
Does this make Native American's evil because they hunted buffalo and killed other animals for their meat? I have to agree with the previous Anonymous comment. Eating animals for food is part of the natural cycle, as long as it is kept in balance. When we waste food and we take more than we need to eat to sustain life, then we upset that balance. What is evil is that we do not revere that which we eat and we do not honor the life that we take by using it wisely. I am much more concerned with the slaughterhouses that raise animals in inhumane conditions than a group of fisherman in a village that kill dolphins for food.
This article rates up there with Paris Hilton saving drunken elephants. I think it's more for the publicity than any true rational concern for animal welfare. If you REALLY want to make a difference, start with the slaughterhouses that raise animals in cramped quarters and inhumane conditions here in the US. Of course, that means taking on multi-billion dollar companies that might be able to fight back...
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