save the dolphins

PLEASE HELP THE OCEAN CREAURES! From September until March every year fishermen in Taiji, Japan drive boats out in the open sea, making horrible noises in the water which confuse and scare dolphins.

This practice is used to herd hundreds of dolphins at a time towards the shore. The most attractive are bought for over $150,000 and are then shipped all over the world.

The rest of the captured dolphins - around 23000 a year - get pushed into another cove where they are massacred in the most brutal manner (the fishermen get around $600 for a dead dolphin). The dolphins are stabbed to death, sometimes so slowly that they just eventually die of pain and blood loss. It has to be noted that these creatures are self-aware.

A dolphin can look into a mirror and recognise itself. This also means that they feel the pain when their children, brothers and sisters are slaughtered next to them. They also understand what is about to happen to them.

Secondary to this inhumane practice is the fact that dolphin meat contains extremely high levels of mercury. Mercury is a highly toxic chemical which is linked to thousands of deaths, child deformities and health complications every year.

The meat from the murdered dolphins in Taiji is distributed throughout public schools for all of Japan%u2019s children to eat. This meat is also being sold under different names (often labelled as whale meat) by retailers throughout Japan.