In a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan was once a shocking secret. A secret that a few desperate men made sure would be no longer kept hidden from the world: thousands of dolphins were, and still are, being captured and sold to the world’s theme parks. Those who don’t make the cut are horrifically tortured and slaughtered—their mercury-laden meat sold under the guise of being “acceptable” flesh for consumption to an unsuspecting Japanese public. It’s a real life horror story—one that is now well and truly public.
The men who risked their lives to tell the world about this atrocity include Louise Psihoyos, a director with a cause who has not only caught the world’s attention, but also the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, with his film, The Cove, which is up for best documentary at the Awards this weekend (March 7).
The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the five dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.” But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day — led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realise that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again.
It wasn’t until years after this realisation that Ric met Louie and the idea for The Cove was born, and more importantly, put into action.
With Jim Clark, Louie also created The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), in 2005. The non-profit organization provides an exclusive lens for the public and media to observe the beauty as well as the destruction of the oceans, while motivating change.
I recently caught up with Louie to talk about what it took to plan, shoot and promote the eco-thriller film. Stay tuned for an interview with Ric O’Barry in the coming days.
Firstly Louie, congratulations in such an incredible documentary. How long did it take to make from idea to final print?
The film took about three and a half years to make, but Laurie David, who produced An Inconvenient Truth told me a year ago that when you’re done making a documentary you’re only halfway there. The film came out a year ago this week and I’m still out promoting the movie. But fortunately most of the traveling is going to film festivals around the world that are in amazing beautiful places meeting great people who are passionate about films so I’m learning a lot at the same time, and not just talking about our film. And at the film festivals the film has been received very well, mostly standing ovations. Even at the Tokyo Film Festival the response was amazing – we had as much media coverage as Avatar.
How did the idea evolve?
I had just started a non-profit organization called The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) with the help of my dive friend, Jim Clark who is an extraordinary visionary. When president John F. Kennedy called for Americans to put a man on the moon back in 1961, it was Jim, at age 26 created and sped the computers to make that possible. Jim is now an inventor and a venture capitalists, kind of a serial entrepreneur. He founded Silicon Graphics, which was the Apple Computer of it’s day, the chip Jim built allowed objects to be constructed in 3-D which allowed movies like Jurassic Park to be made. The day he quit that business he started Netscape, the first commercial Internet browser which was the first avenue that many of us got on the so-called information super highway. The third billion-dollar company he created he joked that he started to prove that the first two were not just luck, but I used information from that medical website to save my mother’s life last year. When Jim funded OPS to make films and create still images to try to create awareness about ocean issues, I reminded him that saving the oceans wasn’t going to be a billion dollar industry and he told me, “I’m not worried about making money, just make a difference.”
There is much responsibility in being entrusted with funds from a friend and a man I regard so highly with so many personal accomplishments but making a difference is the driving motivation for OPS to do everything we do. I always told the film crew that we’re not making a movie, we’re starting a movement to save the oceans. This higher goal informs all of our decisions.
How did you come to meet Ric O’Barry?
Two months after starting OPS I was at a marine mammal conference in San Diego and Ric O’Barry was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the event of mostly PhD speakers. I was looking forward to hearing someone from popular culture speak after a week of quite a few fairly boring talks. But at the last moment, the sponsor of the event, SeaWorld, cut him from the program. I was curious why so I called Ric and he said that they wouldn’t let him talk because he was going to speak about the captive dolphin industry and the world’s largest slaughter of dolphins on the planet.
I had never heard about the captive dolphin industry nor killing of dolphins so I asked him who was doing anything about it and he said right now it was just him and he was going next week, would I like to come to Taiji with him. Driving into Taiji was like driving into a ready made horror film set. On the surface they appear to love dolphins and whales, there’s even a sign coming into town with Anime-style drawings of dolphins that says in English, “We love dolphins.” However right in the center of town lies the Cove. This is in a Japanese National Park, where even Japanese people can’t get into because of the steel gates, keep-out signs, barbed wire, dogs and guards. This is the cove where these crimes against nature and humanity occur – right in the middle of a nature preserve!
Only a day after I watched The Cove, a documentary about dolphins being captured and horrendously slaughtered in the Japanese town of Taijii, a good friend Tweeted “killer whales have rights”. Over on Google News, it was being reported how a killer whale—a member of the dolphin family—at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida had killed its trainer.
As television screens around the world tonight flash news of this tragedy, it brings an immensely important issue to light: animals in captivity and the cruelty that is imposed on them in order to perform in the name of the almighty dollar.
President of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Jim Atchison said the company was investigating the incident and would review its operating standards. How’s this for a review, Jim: release the animals back to their natural habitat. Get a job doing something that doesn’t hurt and exploit animals.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees, guests and the animals entrusted to our care,” he said. If this were truly the case, Jim, you wouldn’t be caging animals in bodies of water that are nothing more than a puddle, surrounded by slabs of cold concrete—no resemblance to their ocean home (never mind that we humans have done our best at turning that into a junk yard too).
It’s not the first time these beautiful animals have back-lashed against their human torturers. The video above was shot in Southern California in 1972 (click here to view if the above doesn’t load). As part of a publicity stunt a park secretary took a “joy ride” on the back of an 8,000 pound killer whale. A whale that had its breaking point. It attacked the girl. She survived. But what about the whale? More torture ahead?
Something urgently needs to change. That change can only start with you and me. Governments won’t change it. Theme parks won’t change it. Circuses won’t change it. The public needs to stop supporting these ridiculous displays of cruelty masked as “entertainment for the whole family”.
Ric O’Barry, who was a dolphin trainer for the Flipper television series in the 1960s and appears in The Cove, says that parks and zoos “want you to think that God put (dolphins) there or (that) they rescued them … if people knew the truth, they wouldn’t buy a ticket.”
In the wild, orcas and dolphins swim up to 100 miles per day, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). But captured dolphins are confined to tanks that may be only 24 feet long, 24 feet wide, and six feet deep. They navigate by echolocation—bouncing sonar waves off other objects to determine their shape, density, distance, and location—but in tanks, the reverberations from their own sonar bounce off the walls, driving some dolphins insane.
Jacques Cousteau said that life for a captive dolphin “leads to a confusion of the entire sensory apparatus, which in turn causes in such a sensitive creature a derangement of mental balance and behaviour.” Tanks are kept clean with chemicals that have unknown side effects. Because of high chlorine levels in their tanks, dolphins at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium were unable to open their eyes, and their skin began to peel off.
Killer whales, or orcas, are members of the dolphin family. They are also the largest animals held in captivity. In the wild, orcas stay with their mothers for life. Family groups, or “pods,” consist of a mother, her adult sons and daughters, and her daughters’ offspring. Members of the pod communicate in a “dialect” specific to that pod. Dolphins swim together in family pods or tribes of hundreds. Capturing even one wild orca or dolphin disrupts the entire pod. To obtain a female dolphin of breeding age, for example, boats are used to chase the pod to shallow waters, where the animals are surrounded with nets that are gradually closed and lifted onto the boats. Unwanted dolphins are thrown back. Some die from shock or stress, and others slowly succumb to pneumonia when water enters their lungs through their blowholes.
Helping doesn’t have to mean donating hundreds or thousands of dollars in the hope someone else will fix the problem. Helping starts with word of mouth. Tell your friends, your neighbours. Heck, even tell a stranger if you feel the urge. Capturing, breeding and torturing these majestic, wild animals for a few kicks and giggles and a lot of cold hard cash is no longer tolerable. It really never has been. We—you and me—are the only chance these beautiful animals have. Please, do your bit, however big or small, to make a difference in the lives of these animals.
Head to PETA, check out the Oceanic Preservation Society for tips on how to help, or sit down and have a chat with your kids to explain why sea parks, circuses and the like are not cool. It all makes a difference.
Also, check back in the coming days to read my interview with The Cove‘s Ric O’Barry and Louie Psihoyo.
When someone becomes vegan, it starts with a decision. Nothing more, nothing less.
This decision can make a huge positive difference to the lives of others, and can turn out to be the most important moment of a person’s life. I know when I became vegan, it changed my life in countless ways (not to mention the lives of animals who were no longer being slaughtered to fill my dinner plate).
Knowing how such a decision can affect humanity, animals and the planet, I was thrilled to be asked to write a passage for a new website, which was born from a desire to help others on their journey from meat eater to vegan.
Called The Vegan Decision, the website is the home of “thoughtful essays from people who made the decision to stop eating animals” and why they made the choice.
Whether you’re vegan, or considering the lifestyle, this website is no doubt going to be a great resource—a place of inspiration, advice and great tips—thanks to those who are sharing their journey. Love it!
I was a proud Aussie until we began slaughtering our most recognisable icon, the beloved kangaroo.
It’s hard to think about these beautiful creatures being hunted down with guns, knives and clubs for monetary greed and personal gain, all under the guide of “pest eradication”. Have you ever known another country to proudly display a “pest” on its Coat of Arms? Or on the tail of its national airline? Me either.
So what happens to these majestic animals once they’ve been killed? It’s a long list. Here’s an excerpt from an article on the Australian Wildlife Protection Council:
Kangaroo paws are made into bottle openers, and stuffed heads into wall mounts. In the orient, you can buy “the Golden Ball Purse,” a small coin purse made from a kangaroo’s scrotum. In England, golfers can pay to sport a furry, fuzzy natural hide golf bag. In Germany and other parts of Europe, people have developed a taste for kangaroo meat. Italians make shoes from the leather. Americans wear these and other leather products made from kangaroo, often without knowing it. The hides are desired for the softness of the leather and there is the added advantage of no expensive feeding costs before slaughter. Never mind the extreme cruelty to many millions of wild animals or the mismanagement of wildlife for great financial gain. All of us, not just Australians, are part of the problem.
Six million kangaroos were killed in 1999 alone. Now, according to reports, our lovable Skippy is facing extinction.
Here are my Top 5 ways to help save the kangaroo:
1. Write to groups such as the Australian Wildlife Protection Agency and ask how you can help them get the word out.
2. Arm yourself with accurate information from websites (ActNowForAnimals, StopKangarooKilling.org, SaveTheKangaroo.com, AnimalLiberation.org) dedicated to the cause, to learn everything there is to know about this barbaric sport. Then blog about it to spread the word.
3. Boycott and write to restaurants, businesses and companies that sell or use kanagroo fur, skin, meat or any other body parts in their products. Some of these include:
• Adidas (sign a petition here);
• Kangaroo Export Import International;
• Country Hide and Skins;
• Macro Meats Gourmet Game;
• Packer Leather;
• Aussie Game Meats;
• Southern Game Meat;
• Aussie Best;
• Australian Bush Store;
• The Leather Shop.
4. Write to the Australian Government;
5. Support the the call for the European Union to ban all kangaroo products.
Who knew the Coat of Arms was a menu?
I don’t have a strong stomach. I’ve never been able to watch more than 10 minutes of docos such as Meet Your Meat (see video below) or Earthlings.
So to switch on the television today and be confronted by cows being slaughtered on a British show called Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, I was immediately sickened — yet intrigued — to see exactly what the message of the show would be.
A group of men and women were brought to see the slaughter process, from viewing the live animal to watching the cows throats being slashed (courtesy of “Steve the Slaughterman”) and finally to the flesh served up on a plate before them (sliced and diced by “John the Butcher”).
I agree with the aim of the show, which is to connect people with the animal they’re eating, and then gauge their reactions to see if they will still eat the meat once they’ve seen how it gets to their plate. Yet I think the show missed two critical steps.
1) The audience briefly saw the animals through glass and didn’t get to personally interact and connect with them;
2) No one participated in the killing themselves.
Despite seeing heads being sliced off and gallons of blood loss (which I saw through tear-soaked, hand-covered eyes), the slaughtering was done at the hands of others, therefore removing any of the participants from the real process.
Of course, you can be certain the volunteer line for something like that would be shorter than a queue to buy ice in Antarctica. But I strongly believe if we want to eat animals, we should be prepared to kill them ourselves (and do so consciously).
Chef Ed Baines was one of the onlookers, who, despite working with meat, had never witnessed a slaughter.
“Before it began I told myself I’d happily give up eating beef if it disturbs me,” he said. “I was initially sad, but once the head was cut off, it became beef.”
Some other quotes from Kill It, Cook It, Eat It:
“It was fine at first. Seeing the cow kicking put me off. I will now think about where beef comes from.”
“I could sense death, so couldn’t see the process.”
“The guys who were going through the whole process had such wonderful craftsmanship.”
“The meat is wobbly because rigamortis hasn’t set in yet. When it does it’s firmer to work with.”
