I saw some of this, it actually kind of upset me so much I couldn't finish watching it.

It's not the fact that it's dolphins they are eating/killing or whatever, it's the way they do it that people seem to have the issue with. It's very slow and painful for the animals in question, and much less humane than the methods used to kill cows etc.

I honestly don't know enough about it to comment, but I'm interested why this happens when most of the Japanese people don't know about it/don't want it? Is there any political reason or anything?

yes it is the way they are slaughtered.


I have seen films of dogs and cats in china SKINNED ALIVE!!

iF i COULD I would do no trade at all with CHINA until they stop that barbaric thing. The way the animals are crammed together in tiny cages and treated as inanimate objects is appalling.


You who do not think killing dolphins or whales is bad-- you are heartless.

Would you like to be herded and then speared?

I dread to think how they treat other living creatures.

also the cruelty to Bears unable to move in a cage too small for them having their bile sucked out.

It is horrific and way too cruel. Human Beings should know better.

damn hippies.
maybe before you start worrying about fish (i know they are mamals and yet - i dont care) you should worry and pay attention to real problems like what humans do to other humans because to each other we can be so much more cruel than to animals.
so show us how dedicated you are and dont buy anything!

hm yes humans too fight and there is much cruelty but animals are defenceless and I am not a damn hippie thank you.

so you think its okay to skin animals alive? would you like to be skinned alive?

fur (fure?) animals are skinned alive so the coats and purses would have a longer life span :)
ou..and animals are defenceless? go and say that steve erwin, or maybe "It has been estimated that 5 million snakebites occur worldwide each year, causing about 125,000 deaths." one of those 125 000 people - do they feel like its wrong to eat snakes and make boots out of them.

Animals held in cages are defenseless. The sting ray did not kill Steve Erwin to skin him and sell his fur. The sting ray did what wild animals do when people get too close for comfort: they defend themselves.

I can't tell if you are being serious about your argument (animals are animals, so there is no such thing as being cruel to them to get what we want from them) or are just playing devil's advocate.

that sting ray was never cought and brought to justice..maybe that was exacly what it wanted! ;)

and more like second option. its just that our simpathy for animals is very selective. you can burn ants with magnifying glass - yea. its normal. you can have snail collection and then squash them - no one minds. also you can use flamethrower to get rid of "dont have a dictionary..jumpy things from bible that plage the fields" ...as soon its something cute we all lose our minds over them and just panic - how can they do that? and when it comes to humans in cages...yea- you wont find an activist group for them as big as for pandas.
thats what bugs me.

OK. American people kill whales because it's an American tradition. Unless you deem Native Americans not American.

Whaling and the killing of dolphins aren't cultural traditions for the majority of Japanese. Nevertheless, there are some regions in Japan that have been doing them for centuries.

Anyway, I don't know how these western activists can go all the way to Japan and paint Japanese a race that is barbaric, that is less than "Human Beings", and at the same time be completely oblivious to the cruelties in their motherlands.

Most Japanese people know what's going on with whaling and the killing of dolphins. And most of them don't want whales and dolphins abused. Still, the western activists aren't very popular because they reek of superiority and hypocrisy, at least that's how they look to Japanese people.

Edit: For the record, I scuba dive and I'd rather watch them than eat them. But I think these activists are really fishy. Dolphin meat is so uncommon in Japan, Daichi city is actually earning only $3 million or so a year out of it. In comparison, Greenpeace's annual budget for example is over $150 million. They can totally and easily compensate these fishermen for not fishing or try starting up whale watching businesses or something. It seems to me the activists are more interested in media coverage and the money that entails it than whales and dolphins themselves. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Some people in the West share the same view.

The other Side of the Seal Hunt
The not so peaceful world of Greenpeace

I believe this view is more prevalent in Japan than in the West though. If you read Japanese, google グリーンピース or シーシェパード and you'll see what I mean. It isn't surprising really. They are depicting the Japanese as heartless barbarians. Of course the Japanese don't take kindly to them.