The Painless Harpoon: Japanese Official Assures U.S. Ambassador That Annual Dolphin Slaughter Is Entirely Painless
jonathanturley
The senior official associated with the annual and notorious dolphin hunt in Japan assured U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy that the harpooning of the cetaceans in entirely painless. Yoshifumi Kai of the Taiji Fishermen’s Cooperative wants to correct the odd impression that the dolphins writhing in the blood infused slaughter are actually experiencing pain when a giant spear-like weapon is thrust through their bodies. If so, we may have a solution for the shortage of lethal drugs for executions: we could just harpoon death row inmates. Indeed, in euthanasia countries like the Netherlands could switch over to harpooning for the terminally ill.
Yoshifumi Kai announced this week “The method (of killing) causes them no pain. We would like Ambassador Kennedy to come and visit to see the hunt for herself.” This followed a critical tweet from Kennedy over the “inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG (U.S. government) opposes drive hunt fisheries.”
The Japanese kill 1000 dolphins int he hunt that lasts a month and starts in September. The trap them in a small area and then harpoon them in waters turned red with blood. The slaughter was documented in the film “The Cove.”
Here is a graphic illustration of the painless “harvesting” of dolphin:
