Do the Japanese kill and eat dolphins?

The media today is full of misinformation, and people nowadays do not tend to reason and believe in anything they hear and take it as an idea. A simple report showing Chinese people eating dog at a festival in a certain city in China was able to root the idea that Chinese people eat dog even though 99% of Chinese people have never eaten a dog in their lives.

Because of these reports, people tend to create generalized ideas about countries and nationalities, and they don’t even notice that in Brazil similar practices occur, such as the slaughter of rabbits, frogs, armadillos, bull testicles, mocotó, chouriço, sarapatel, and other foods that may be considered strange and disgusting to some. It is no longer enough for the idea that Japanese people eat some live seafood, now people claim that Japanese people eat dolphins. Let’s try to really understand what is happening and what practice this is to silence the generalizers.

Yes, they kill dolphins

Just like with the whale hunting, the capture of dolphins has other purposes. Unlike whales, dolphins are far from extinction; to be honest, even the whales that the Japanese hunt are far from extinction. The concerning generator of the controversies surrounding dolphin eating is not the meat itself, since criticizing the consumption of an animal just because it is cute is nothing but hypocrisy. What is truly concerning is the way dolphins are captured and killed; dolphins are lured and surrounded by a sound barrier and killed with spears, while other dolphins watch this sea of blood.

All this slaughter happens only in ONE small place (village) in Japan called Taiji. They claim that eating this meat is a local tradition. And it is not 20,000 dolphins as some sites claim; decades ago the numbers were only around 1500 and now in recent years it has drastically dropped to 200. This is because it is not at all advantageous to kill dolphins; let’s understand the reason.

Firstly, selling a live dolphin to abroad or to a water park generates a profit of 300,000 dollars. While with the sale of the meat, the profit is less than 1,000 dollars. Not to mention that the meat is not sold throughout Japan; while some news lies that it is a common meat, it is only consumed with low frequency in the Taiji region where this hunting takes place. Not even 1% of the population has had the chance to try this meat; some have only tried it once in their lives. Many Japanese people do not even know about the dolphin slaughter and the sale of its meat, which is mostly sent abroad. Many who know still condemn the practice and campaign against it!

Curiosities about Dolphin Slaughter

Let’s see some information, data, statistics, and curiosities so you can examine them calmly.

• Dolphins are hunted in other countries such as the Solomon Islands, Faroe Islands, and Peru;
• Dolphin meat poses health risks due to pollution;
• Taiji in Wakayama is the only place in Japan where this hunting occurs;
• Currently, the method used to kill dolphins is with a spear to the neck so that they die quickly without suffering;
• Countries like Taiwan, Hawaii, and even Washington have hunted dolphins. Various countries where hunting is prohibited still occur and in large numbers; in Peru, for example, nearly 2000 dolphins die each year;
• In 2007, about 1000 animals were killed;
• The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums does not support hunting;
• Several veterinarians and scientists concluded that the method used for hunting must be prohibited;
• Taiji started the first commercial hunting operations in 1606;
• The hunting season opens on September 1st and goes until February; a maximum of 1800 is allowed per year;

Where do we want to get?

The simple fact that the news spreads in a generalized manner or with wrong numbers and information makes people draw conclusions or have absurd ideas about what really happens. We are not defending this practice; any act of violence and cruelty against animals is condemnable. But what happens is not so severe to the point of making idiotic people create hatred against an entire nation that does not even know what is going on. Especially when our nation and all other nations are responsible for similar and repugnant acts.

The truth is that this tradition in Taiji is nothing more than a lucrative business to sell live dolphins and merchants to sell a little meat at exorbitant prices to an insignificant number of people. Of course, I do not blame anyone who eats the meat of this animal; there are many other animals that die cruelly and that people eat daily. I will not criticize the practice just because they are cute and intelligent little creatures. But I believe that the method used could be a little different and less cruel. But don’t we fish fish with hooks and let them die from lack of water?

And what is the Government’s position on this? When it comes to money, every government is flawed, and practitioners end up circumventing or using loopholes in the laws to carry out their lucrative businesses. Prostitution is prohibited in Japan, and yet it is not difficult to find; understand that the law is always flawed and there is no perfect governmental system. If you research deeply into things that happen in the dark in any country, you will be shocked. So do not let generalized information make your mind to the point of generating hatred for people who have no relation to the subject. We can hate the practice and the people who practice it, but not an entire nation that has nothing to do with it.