The nonhuman mammal most capable of suffering is the one least entitled to protection under Japanese law
“This killing method…would not be tolerated or permitted in any regulated slaughterhouse process in the developed world”
University of Bristol Veterinary School’s Andrew Butterworth, in 2013
With this year’s dolphin drive-hunting season having just come to an end, we find ourselves in the familiar position of hoping that finally, this time, it will have been the last. We know that one day Japanese authorities will catch up to where most of the world has already been for some time, and over the summer at some point, the Wakayama Prefecture will deny the license for the following season. This year, our optimism may be based on the fact that there is an ongoing criminal complaint that dolphin meat hitting Japan’s store shelves as a result of these hunts far exceeds the nation’s own limits for mercury and methyl mercury content. But ultimately we also know that as long as there is demand for dolphin shows and swim-with-the-dolphins programs, the trade in live captures will continue.
As this season wraps up, I’d like to leave you with one especially poignant thought. One that disturbs me beyond words, and which you may find surprising. In Japan, the nonhuman animal most capable of experiencing the kind of emotional and psychological trauma we humans would be able to empathize with, is the one with the least legal protection against it.
Legal standards aside, the killing method depicted above would be unacceptable if inflicted on any animal which has a complex nervous system that enables it to feel physical pain. But a dolphin isn’t any animal, and that’s what makes this so horrific.
The Taiji dolphin drive hunt takes place in every year from September 1st to March 1st, and is carried out by a select group of fishermen under the Taiji Fisheries Cooperative. So there’s your first hint as to what’s terribly wrong with this picture. Without getting into the horrors of the drive itself, or the captive selection process, or what the nightmare of captivity entails for an animal of a dolphin’s nature, let’s just focus on the killing method alone for a moment. And try to imagine what this is like for an animal roughly as intelligent as you are, trapped in the cove with others of its pod with whom it shares intense social bonds.
After a successful drive, the dolphins are always enormously agitated by being trapped within the netting, so they’re left to calm down overnight. The next day the hunters will employ divers and small boats to enter the enclosure, catch the dolphins one at a time, and drag them under the tarps to be killed. Until a few years ago the killing was done by cutting the dolphin’s throat and waiting for it to bleed to death. That method was eventually banned in favour of one now ‘officially sanctioned’ because of the pretense that it brings about a quick and relatively painless death. What happens is that a metal pin is driven into the cervical region, severing the brainstem, then inserting a pin to stop the bleeding. I believe that this is the real reason for the change, as all of that blood spilling out into surrounding waters looks very bad to the cameras watching and reporting out to the world in real time. As to what the dolphins are experiencing…
An academic paper published in 2013 in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science concluded that this killing method “creates such terror and pain that it would be illegal to kill cows in Japan in this manner” and that it “would not be tolerated or permitted in any regulated slaughterhouse process in the developed world”. So that is the opinion of the several veterinarians and behavioral scientists who evaluated the current Taiji killing method. The propaganda of the Japanese Fisheries Ministry and of the Wakayama Prefecture tells us something quite different, of course.
Also, authorities continue to ignore completely the horrific fact of cruelly slaughtering an animal with this level of cognitive sophistication and social intelligence, instead focusing on aspects like tradition and sustainable management of resources.
The following is taken directly from the Wakayama website.
Why does Wakayama Prefectural Government permit dolphin fishery?
For the southern part of the prefecture, dolphin fishery is not only an important industry but also a local traditional culture, and it is conducted in a manner permitted by relevant laws so as to enable scientific management and utilization of natural resources.
Taiji, located on the east coast of the Kii Peninsula, is a small town with a population of 3,500. Located far away from major centers of economic activity, the town has a 400-year tradition of whaling, and has flourished over the years thanks to whaling and dolphin fishery. Whales and dolphins are an integral part of the food culture of the area. There are many traditional cultural events throughout the year connected with whales and dolphins, and dolphin fishery has supported the livelihood of people as the industry indispensable to the local economy.
We believe that whales and dolphins are living marine resources which can be harvested in a sustainable manner with proper management. The relevant authorities control fishing activities in order not to deplete these resources excessively.
To commoditize cetaceans in this way – to treat them as just another resource for your fishery – is morally abhorrent and entirely disingenuous. That a dolphin is not a fish is certainly not an oversight, as this fact is obvious to everyone, so we can only speculate as to the true motivation. Perhaps the creators of Netflix’s Seaspiracy are correct, and the point is to eliminate a perceived competitor for declining and already seriously depleted fish stocks. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that something very sinister is at play here. And it is deeply disturbing.
We are left wondering why, in Japan, whales and dolphins are considered so separately from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Japan’s main animal welfare law is the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals, first passed in 1973. The law makes it a crime to “kill, injure, or inflict cruelty on animals without due cause, and creates a duty of care in owners and keepers of animals to maintain their health and safety and raise them in a manner according to their species and behavior”. Certain animals are specified, including: cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, domestic rabbits, chickens, domestic pigeons and domestic ducks, or “other animals which have an owner and are mammals, birds or reptiles”. Penalties for killing, injuring, abandoning or “cruelty by neglect” include fines or imprisonment of up to one year. Notably, fish are not included in any of the protected categories. Tragically, ‘fish’ is the category into which whales and dolphins have been grouped.
In 2014, Japan received a D out of possible grades ranging from A – G on World Animal Protection’s Animal Protection Index. About the middle of the road, and not much better or worse than Canada by way of comparison. Bottom line, Japan is not a place where animals in general tend to fare especially poorly in the eyes of the law. The nation is about average in the protection it provides to other species. The problem is that dolphins are almost entirely excluded from any kind of legal help.
An attempt was made only a couple of years ago to correct this obvious injustice and, had it gone to trial, would have no doubt produced a good result. After all, how hard would it be to prove that a dolphin is not a fish? Unfortunately, the court found that the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to pursue the case (meaning that party seeking a legal remedy must have sufficient connection to and harm from the law to support their participation in the lawsuit). So that hopeful attempt came to a most disappointing end at that point.
One has to wonder if it’s expected that the dolphins themselves will have to file suit!
What results is that the most intelligent species on the planet, with the possible exception of ourselves, are not afforded basic protections most industrialized nations grant to other mammals. Ideally, dolphins should be recognized as having personhood rights, as is the case only in India so far. In Japan, they have much less than even other mammals get. Far from being regarded as persons, or even as worthy of humane treatment, dolphins in Japan are routinely subjected to extraordinary cruelty. There a no laws of any kind, at either the national or local levels, that prohibit either the drive-hunts or the manner in which dolphins are killed. Rather, the police maintain a presence during the hunting season to ensure that hunters can act without interference from protestors and activists.
All animals deserve humane treatment, regardless of our estimation of their nature or intelligence. But when a species is capable of high-level thought, language, and complex social relationships, their capacity to experience suffering is multiplied significantly. This creates a much higher duty of care in ourselves. That the Taiji hunters can hear the whistling and clicks of the dolphins’ communications with each other over the sounds of their thrashing as they’re being killed, and still go on with their activities is shocking. It seems obvious that the dolphins are communicating what they’re experiencing, and that the next in line are aware of what’s coming.
So we need to ask ourselves, if we consider ourselves human, and humane, aren’t we able to empathize with this?
For The Orca’s Voice,
Anna, Canadian Cetacean Alliance
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