The Cove

I had watched The Cove about a month ago on Animal Planet.  I had heard of the Japanese slaughtering dolphins for their meat, but the documentary brought new insight to how barbaric the "tradition" actually is.  The town of Taiji seemed like something out of "The Twilight Zone," with monuments celebrating aquatic life and buildings painted with murals of smiling dolphins and whales, despite the fact that for a few months out of the year, they slaughter tens of thousands of dolphins.  Interestingly enough, the manufacturers claim this particular method of killing dolphins is a "tradition," while many Japanese people in Tokyo have never heard of such a custom.  This "tradition" is also used for capturing dolphins for use in theme parks and various captivity venues.  The crusader against these killings is Ric O'Barry, who actually began the trend of aquatic captivity for human entertainment.  I feel for this guy.  He talks about how he held the dolphin used in "Flipper" while she took her last breath and sunk to the bottom of the tank.  I feel bad saying this, but watching this documentary sort of made me feel ashamed to be Japanese.  To think that these people could just brutally slaughter possibly the most intelligent creature on Earth is upsetting.