It's dolphin slaughter time again in Taiji!

[flvegan]

Tokyo - At Taiji, a quaint whaling town 700 kilometres south of Tokyo, waves lap against steep rocks of a popular national park.

However, visitors are kept well away from the slaughter happening in a secluded lagoon nearby.

Japanese fishermen, backed by the country's government, are slaughtering thousands of dolphins off the coast, while ignoring both international protests and concerns about contaminated dolphin meat being sold to the public.

Between October and April, some 16 000 to more than 20 000 of the animals are killed in the annual hunt, in Taiji and other Japanese fishing towns, often cruelly stabbed with knives, hooks and lances.

The mass slaughter goes ahead with the backing of the government, but without the majority of the population being aware of it.

*this part is the most disturbing, and too many folks here in the US know nothing about it*

Individual, particularly beautiful dolphins are selected in a lagoon with the aid of dolphin trainers and sold off at high profits to aquariums and dolphin shows around the world.

The remaining dolphins are killed in a secluded bay nearby, O'Barry said.

The booming dolphin-captivity industry was providing a major financial incentive to keep the brutal hunts going, O'Barry told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20081013132027606C517163

More on the annual slaughter:

http://www.seashepherd.org/taiji/

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/