The 2014 Dolphin Hunt in Taiji

Labor Day Weekend is viewed by many as the last hurrah before we say goodbye to the somewhat  relaxing days of summer. The flowers in the garden are starting to turn subtle shades of pink and red, the veggie garden is looking more than a little bedraggled and the smell of fall is in the air, despite the fact that it is still hot out-too hot, really.

So, I am happily ensconced in my cool house thinking about the concept of family and our Labor Day Weekend. After a year in Hamilton, my daughter and her family have relocated to Ottawa, which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from our home in Beaconsfield. It is a dream come true for this Grammie, who has missed the casual feel of living close to the ones I love. And, what the  about my grandchiblets? Every day away from them is a day missed in the quickly changing landscape of their lives. The little guy is talking and trying to boss everyone around with his particular want of the moment and big sister is no longer a really little kid. She is six now and into all things that, to her, seem grownup-like my jewellery, my crystal figurines, my fancy dishes and so on…a watchful eye is needed at all times.

But, I love it! Their antics and personality quirks never seem to irk me and I revel in the love they show me. Whether it is the little guy proclaiming, “I love Grammie”, or his big sister putting on her apron and wanting to help me with the family meal, I am so thankful to be there to experience and enjoy these precious moments. So, our family get together on Sunday was particularly special for me. My son and his girlfriend were there, my daughter and her family and my brother and my niece. For me, it was a pleasant harbinger of family times to come.

But while I was enjoying all the festivities (or the family feast, as my grandaughter called it), I was thinking about the particular significance of September first for families of another species- that is, the launch of the annual,  six month dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan. The projected hunt and kill is set at 1,938 dolphins, who will be rounded up using sounds to confuse them, and either captured for the nonhuman entertainment industry,  killed for meat or driven back out into the sea, family-less and often injured.

I first heard about the hunt last year, when a baby albino dolphin was captured after her mother was killed. Many advocates highlighted the plight of this dolphin and all the other dolphins, but to no avail. The little dolphin, known as Angel, languishes in captivity in a small holding tank, alone and without family. Ric O’Barry of Dolphin Project has continued the fight to free Angel. 

Last February, I wrote  a post about the Dolphin Hunt at Taiji and I encourage you to read or reread it. The numbers of the kill may change this year.  There probably won’t be a little albino dolphin captured, but all the rest will be the same. The cove will be red with the blood of the dolphins, there will be terrified screams, there will be mothers trying to protect their young and there will be fishermen seemingly impervious to the horror they are creating. 

And for what? I cannot get behind any of the reasons given for  hunting these beings-the nutritional need for their meat, the tradition of hunting, the right of the Japanese government to set and oversee its own laws. It does not matter that the meat is tainted, it does not matter that the hunt is not really a tradition because it is only forty years old, it does not matter that the Japanese gov’t is acting irresponsibly. What does matter is that these beings are being hunted, tortured, confined, slaughtered and abandoned. We have a moral imperative not to actively participate in such atrocities, not to support them with our dollars, and not to ignore what is ongoing all over the world.

Check out The Dodo where you can catch up on this year’s hunt .