DawnWatch: Shocking dolphin slaughter on prime time television -- November 2007

Subject: DawnWatch: Shocking dolphin slaughter on prime time television -- November 2007

The annual dolphin slaughter has been on again in Taiji, Japan, over the last few weeks. Former Flipper trainer turned dolphin advocate, Ric O'Barry, and other wonderful activists have been at the killing coves documenting the horror and trying to get the world to take notice. They have had more luck than usual this year as they were joined by Heroes star Hayden Panettierre, and celebrities make the US media take notice.

But the coverage hasn't been fluff. Even the coverage on E, which did not show graphic footage, is worth checking out at http://tinyurl.com/yqywb2 , as there is a place to leave comments. The more positive feedback for attention to animal issues that the segment gets, the better.

Sky News in the UK shared shocking footage. You can watch the segment on line at
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1291049,00.html
and send a "letter to the editor" at http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/feedback

In the US, the most impressive coverage I saw was on The Insider. As The Insider is a celebrity magazine show, it focused on Hayden's participation, but it also shared what might be the most gruesome animal cruelty footage I have ever seen on prime time television. Though I could not find anywhere on the site to send thanks to the show, surely somebody counts the number of web hits each story gets, so just taking a look at it on line will help the animals. Forwarding the link will help them more. You'll find it on line at http://www.theinsideronline.com/news/2007/11/13823/

Most importantly, The Insider points us to http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

From that website you can:

-- "Send a message to the International Marine Animal Trainers Association to stop doing business with the Taiji dolphin killers"

-- "Send a message to members of the Japanese government – National, regional, and local, urging immediate cessation of the drive fishery and immediately prohibition of the sale of heavily contaminated dolphin meat"

And
--- Donate to help keep the Action Team on the ground in Taiji to monitor, witness, investigate, educate, and end the dolphin slaughter:

Please go to www.savejapandolphins.org and act now.

If you see the story in your local paper, please send a letter to the editor appreciative of the animal coverage. You may also wish to take the opportunity to call attention to the way some animals are treated closer to home. (Please go to http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp if you know little about our local horrors.)

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)