Four days later approximately 32 melon-headed whales were butchered and 15 others chased back out to sea after witnessing their families be killed. One calf lost their mother.
The following day an entire pod of Risso’s dolphins were killed. Two days later, another 21 melon-headed whales were slaughtered.
I’m saddened to say the first month of this year ended with another 12 striped dolphins and 7 bottlenose dolphins being driven into the cove and killed.
It’s not just the killing. Last month approximately four dolphins were tired to the point of exhaustion, forced into slings, and sold into a life of captive imprisonment.
The suffering is relentless.
A bottlenose dolphin struggles for their life as hunters tire them to the point of exhaustion. Source: Kunito.
Action for Dolphins is fighting to bring an end to these brutal hunts. We’ve paired legal action and advocacy before and it worked – in 2015 62 aquariums stopped buying dolphins from Taiji.
Now we’re submitting criminal complaints against suppliers of dolphin meat, lobbying major retailers to stop selling meat from Taiji, and exposing aquariums buying dolphins from the hunts.
It’s heartbreaking to hear what happens in Taiji. But these dolphins need us to continue fighting for them – which is what we will do until these hunts end for good.