Спасите дельфинов в Японии!

The annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan is now underway. Hundreds of marine mammals will be rounded up in a terrifying 'drive hunt' and pushed into a secluded inlet where they will be killed. The closely corralled animals are forced to listen to their family and pod members suffer through long, painful deaths.

The inhumane practice was exposed in the 2009 documentary The Coveand featured the work of former dolphin-capturer, turned activist Ric O'Barry. The film featured graphic images of the hunt, such as frantic dolphins penned into the narrow waterway and animals being violently hauled out of the water into boats. Ultimately, the cove turned red from the blood of all the slaughtered marine mammals.

While the slaughtered dolphins will be eaten, the biggest financial prize for the fishermen is to sell a dolphin into captivity. A butchered dolphin is worth roughly $500, but a live dolphin can be sold for as much as $100,000 to a tourist attraction. But for dolphins to be big draws, they need to be trained to perform. That means dolphin trainers have a powerful ability to help stop this brutality.

Sign my petition demanding dolphin trainers speak out against Taiji and all inhumane drive hunts, and refuse to train any dolphins captured by this horrible practice.

The International Marine Animal Trainers' Association (IMATA) is the world's largest group of dolphin trainers. If their membership agrees to stop training Taiji and other drive-hunt captured animals, we can help shut down the financial motivations behind the slaughter.

We are making progress against the slaughter. Fewer people in Japan are eating dolphin meat, and fewer zoos and aquariums are willing to buy the dolphins. But unfortunately, there is currently an explosion of attractions featuring captured marine mammals in China, which means there is a huge demand for captive dolphins. Trainers remain critical to efforts to save these animals.

Thank you for acting for wildlife,

Aaron V. The Care2 Petitions Team