Text Dolphin to 44144?

Somehow I happened in front of the TV during the Oscars this year just in time for Best Documentary Feature. I’m not a big fan of the Oscars but if someone in the house is watching it I’ll stop what I’m doing for a few minutes to see what’s going on, and this time I was drawn in by scenes of Buddhists (movie Burma VJ) first, then the beautiful blue ocean with a haunting background music and dozens of swimming dolphins amidst a chaos of fisherman, one holding a sign “don’t take photos”. then scenes of my new favorite movie “Food Inc”, so of course I sat down to watch.
As they announced the winner “The Cove” I watched with mixed feelings. I thought for sure Food inc would take it, but what I saw of The Cove looked promising as well, it was animal-centered so I automatically approved. I got up to leave during the Thank You speech and glimpsed a sign go up behind the speaker as I walked out the door. Wait, what did that say? Thank god for DVR, I reversed the show to see the sign again.
“Text Dolphin to 44144”. What? So I had to investigate, and I’ll just say now, it’s not pretty.
The movie itself looks very good, but I’m not sure I could handle watching it as it seems I’ve become much more sensitive about watching any living creature forced to endure mistreatment by human hands.
The Cove exposes a cove in Japan, out of site and off limits to the public, where they lure dolphins in to slaughter and to catch for sale to the entertainment industry. The meat, which is not edible due of toxic mercury levels, is then sold to restaurants, usually as whale meat, and to the schools for school lunches. Pure greed is making these barbarians kill and these beautiful animals and then poison their own countrymen and, worst of all, their children.
I know it is legal to kill dolphins in Japan, and whales too, but it doesn’t make it right. It’s illegal to kill whales in all but 3 countries (Japan, Iceland and Norway), every other country agrees we shouldn’t kill them. By the way, you may have unknowingly had whale meat recently if you’ve eaten at “The Hump” in Santa Monica, they were charged with selling the endangered Sei Whale in their sushi this week.
Which brings me to another great animal issue of late – Tillicum at Sea World Orlando. Tilly grabbed on to his trainers ponytail and dragged her underwater to her death. This is not the first time Tilly has killed, but Sea World insists this was human error. Bullshit. Sea World, and all other industries that exploit animals, will tell lies so the public thinks the animals are happy confined to their tiny pens their entire life. By placing the blame on the trainer, they instill a false sense of security in the public mind that “oh, it’s okay, the whale is not unhappy, he was just confused”. If we thought it was Tilly’s fault we then might think he was acting out, and then we’d wonder why he’d do that, which would lead to all kinds of horrible thoughts that might keep us away from Sea World.
While these animals do not think and reason the same way humans do, they do have an evolved intelligence and they do know there is more out there and their nature is to move freely and swim long distances, not to be confined in pens barely twice their size, even if they were born there. A former Tilly trainer said Tilly has a mean streak, and shouldn’t he? Wouldn’t you?
If you had been born and raised and lived in a closet your entire life, you would know something more existed, your gut, your soul, your sense would tell you, It’s the same for the whales, the dolphins, the sea lions and the bears in the zoo. They all deserve more, but again it’s money driving the exploitation and suffering of these animals.
It’s great to be able to experience wildlife, but we should do it in their environment. If we want to experience them, shouldn’t we be the ones to take the risk? How selfish are we to think that animals are here to only serve our purpose?
I know it’s hard go against these things, I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to view the Lion habitat at the MGM this week. The path from my room to car took me past it daily, but always before or after they were “open”. It was heartbreaking just to see the small, glass enclosed area of fake rock and trees that was supposed to be their home.
But this is what people think we need, so now we need to think for ourselves.
“The Cove” trailer is below, you decide.