THE COVE : It got my mercury rising!

 I must admit that most of the time animal abuse takes a back seat to human abuse, in my mind. Because of this, I spend most of my political efforts highlighting problems affecting people. It is not that I don't care about animals, it is simply that there is so much exploitation of humanity occurring that the abused animals might have to "take a number" and get in line!

 Having said that, it calls attention to the fact that this post is primarily about animal abuse. Dolphin abuse to be specific. Did you know that in a small fishing community in Japan thousands and thousands of dolphins are brutally slaughtered, every year? Virtually no one knew about this for a very long time. The people involved in this vicious business, and the Japanese Government have done everything they could to keep this secret. They have been aided in these efforts by the Japanese media. They have also been aided by the US corporate media in this information blackout. I ask you; How much do you know about the annual dolphin slaughter? I'm betting your knowledge of this carnage is limited to your exposure to the new movie/documentary The Cove. If you are as yet unfamiliar with this movie, I imagine your insight into this issue is minimal.

 In The Cove, Ric O'Barry (Flipper's trainer) tells us about his personal experiences with the Flipper cast of dolphins. In fact, Flipper was actually a series of five female dolphins caught in the wild, and trained primarily by him. He explains how these dolphins needed to be replaced frequently because they didn't fare well in captivity. Also he explains how "Cathy" the last Flipper was so depressed by captivity that she stopped breathing in his arms. This traumatic experience was a life changing experience for him. As he puts it, he spent ten years building this dolphin industry up, and the last thirty-five years trying to tear it down!

 As an adjunct to this great new movie the people involved also produced a short (eighteen min.) addendum piece titled Mercury Rising. This title may conjure mental images of hot weather, global warming, or climate change. That is not the point or subject matter of this movie "short". In this interesting piece, the makers highlight the immense problem of mercury contamination. This is a subject everyone needs to know more about. I am embedding this very informative shortumentary here (as well as two previews of The Cove). Please take a few minutes and watch them.

 I have also included the movie trailer in this post, you can view it here:

 Also if you would like to watch the longer movie trailer, I have added it here for you to see:

Ric O'Barry also has a website. 

This is the link.