| The Cove, may have won the 2010 Academy Award | | | | Japanese journalist Katsuichi Honda makes the |
| for Best Documentary Film, but its makers will most | | | | following comments in an essay he wrote regarding |
| likely not succeed in their goal of stopping the Taiji | | | | the 1980 case of Earthtrust president Dexter Kate |
| dolphin hunt. | | | | who was arrested for releasing 200 dolphins from the |
| This is not because the Japanese are deeply | | | | nets they had been corralled into in Nagasaki |
| committed to hunting dolphins. In fact, dolphin is not | | | | Prefecture. During the course of discussions with |
| generally eaten in Japan, it is a little-known regional dish. | | | | Kate's supporters, Honda made the following points: |
| Before The Cove brought publicity to the practice of | | | | "Whether this distinction [superior intelligence] between |
| eating dolphin meat, very few Japanese were aware | | | | dolphins and other animals is valid or not, a more |
| of it. | | | | important issue is why no question arises on killing |
| Also, the Japanese are just as charmed by dolphins | | | | animals of lesser intelligence. Why can we slaughter |
| as any other nationality, "swimming with wild dolphins" is | | | | cows with no problem? The activists provided no |
| a popular activity for Japanese tourists. | | | | justification to explain less-intelligent animals' destiny, |
| On the other hand, the idea that dolphins are as | | | | while they rationalized that cows can be controlled as |
| intelligent as humans is not generally accepted in Japan. | | | | livestock and therefore we can slaughter them. I asked |
| The Japanese (and Chinese) word for dolphin, iruka, | | | | them whether we can domesticate dolphins and then |
| means "ocean pig," if translated literally. That fact | | | | slaughter them. Their response was in effect that this |
| suggests that dolphins have traditionally been viewed | | | | would be pathetic and barbaric. Their argument is not |
| as a food source in East Asia, and most Japanese | | | | logical but rather emotional, deeply rooted in their own |
| find it hard to understand why it's O.K. to kill cows and | | | | history and culture. |
| pigs for their meat, but it's not O.K. to kill dolphins for | | | | For those born and raised in Western culture, dolphins |
| the same purpose. | | | | and whales are animals that frequently appear in |
| I think it's important to bear in mind that the dolphins | | | | ancient Greek or Roman mythology. A comparable |
| which are killed and captured in Japan are not | | | | animal in India is the cow, which is regarded as sacred |
| endangered species, and that they are hunted in a | | | | and has never become livestock for slaughter and |
| sustainable manner. Another point that one should at | | | | consumption. Thus, the difference in cultural or historical |
| least consider is that perhaps the idea that dolphins | | | | background is significant...I asked them what they |
| should be given a privileged position and special | | | | would think if Indians went to ranches in the western |
| dispensation from being hunted is a Western cultural | | | | United States and liberated cows. |
| peculiarity. | | | | |