TOKYO (AP) - Hayden Panettiere and some fellow animal rights activists drew angry shouts and some shoving from fishermen in Japan when they tried to interfere with a dolphin hunt, according to video footage shot by the protesters.
The six activists from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd paddled out on surfboards to a cove in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan on Tuesday to interfere with the annual hunt.
Fishermen on a boat approached the activists and ordered them to leave, shoving some of them with a long pole. An angry fisherman later shouted in the face of one of the protesters on the road above the cove. There did not appear to be any injuries.
"This baby stuck its head out and kind of looked as us, and the thought that the baby is no longer with us is very difficult," Panettiere, who stars in the NBC show "Heroes," said after coming ashore.
The local fishermen and their supporters say hunting dolphins - in this case, pilot whales - is a Japanese custom that outsiders have no business interfering with.
"Whales and dolphins are traditionally being used (as resources) in Japan," said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the whaling section at the Japanese Fisheries Agency. "In this light, we cannot accept an argument simply based on emotional causes."
About 14,000 dolphins are killed for food in Japan every year.
Coastal dolphin hunts usually involve herding groups of the animals into a cove using sonar equipment, or by banging metal rods in the water, creating a sort of acoustic barrier. The mammals are then trapped using nets and divers are sent in to kill them.
Anybody ever heard of this:
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Reel Cowboy
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Anybody ever heard of this:
In the words of the great Doc Holliday, "I'll be your huckleberry"
heard of the hunt. I think some pictures were posted on BBF last year. Don't know the details of how it permitted though, especially in light of the international laws regarding protection of marine mamals.
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught.
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Dubble Trubble
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I could make a video of a cattle slaughterhouse with the same "shock" effect.
I am sure in India, you would be looked upon as a savage for killing a cow.
People have to eat and have different customs. If they just killed them for fun and not the meat, it would be different. (Like some Big game hunters do in this country). I have nothing against hunters for example, but have no respect for the ones who just do it for the rack and discard the meat. The same goes for those who kill those huge sharks with no real reason.
While I think Mother Earth would welcome a good population thinning of the human race, I want to ask you that complain.....do you wanna go first?
I didn't think so....
Nuff said.....
Dubble
I am sure in India, you would be looked upon as a savage for killing a cow.
People have to eat and have different customs. If they just killed them for fun and not the meat, it would be different. (Like some Big game hunters do in this country). I have nothing against hunters for example, but have no respect for the ones who just do it for the rack and discard the meat. The same goes for those who kill those huge sharks with no real reason.
While I think Mother Earth would welcome a good population thinning of the human race, I want to ask you that complain.....do you wanna go first?
I didn't think so....
Nuff said.....
Dubble
The more I know about something, the more I know that I did not know as much as I thought I knew that I knew.
DT,If they just killed them for fun and not the meat, it would be different. (Like some Big game hunters do in this country). I have nothing against hunters for example, but have no respect for the ones who just do it for the rack and discard the meat.
I get your point and don't want to open a whole can of worms or come off as hyper-technical. That being said, you must define "hunting," and know a different type of "hunter" than I associate with. I think in most states "hunting regulations" prohibit the waste/abandonement of a game animal. Simply killing, even if the process involves stalking and/or fair chase, is NOT the American tradition known as "hunting" that we all have the right to particpate in.
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught.