Protecting dolphins’ and all animals’ freedom

Following a recent accident at a US marine entertainment park that resulted in the sad loss of a human life, public awareness has risen regarding the cruelty involved in confining wild whales and dolphins.

In a new study, researchers from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom found that dolphins in their native habitats experience extreme stress if forced to have too much close contact with people.

The study, which was conducted off the coast of Zanzibar Island, Tanzania revealed that when large groups of tourists came and tried to swim with and touch a group of bottlenose dolphins, the marine mammals spent much more time moving through the water and significantly reduced time spent in activities such as seeking food, nurturing their young and resting. As a result, not only individual dolphins, but whole populations could be harmed.

Respected Canadian conservationist Michael Bailey, co-founder of the international environmental group Greenpeace, has in recent months been calling for renewed respect toward dolphins, along with a halt of their massacre for meat and capture for entertainment.

In an interview with Supreme Master Television, Mr. Bailey spoke of them as one of all animals we must protect to sustain our environment.

Michael Bailey – Co-founder of Greenpeace, Canadian conservationist, documentary producer (M): For me the dolphin is a very special creature. They have a cheerful nature and a gentle nature and they have a tribal nature that’s really rare.

Perhaps the way that, in my view, ancient humans were tribal thousands of years ago, working together. And these gentle creatures warm our hearts, make us feel alive, make us understand that the Earth is a very special place. We’ve got beautiful creatures on this planet that we share with and we need to respect them
and make the planet a better place for all. Be veg! Go green! Save the planet!

VOICE: We thank Mr. Bailey, Greenpeace and the Newcastle University researchers for your work in raising public awareness about the gentle dolphin. May such understanding help humans and all co-inhabitants of the Earth to live in peaceful co-existence. In an October 2009 videoconference in Indonesia, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the need for human kindness toward all animals, especially in our wish to save the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we want to call ourselves a civilized human race, we must protect the animals’ lives, which are linked to ours. If we want to receive the mercy of Heaven for our life here on Earth, we must first be merciful in granting the same dignity and freedom of life to the animals.

Only then can we have a return of the environmental balance that I know you also seek to protect. So please everyone, be veg and we can save the planet.

http://vegansociety.jp/tag/the-cove/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7456102/Swimming-with-dolphins...
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/dolphins-dont-like-to-swim-with...

Oscar-winning film director speaks out for dolphin and ocean protection.

The documentary film, “The Cove,” describing the cruelty of an annual dolphin hunt that takes place in a small bay in Japan, recently won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

For the filmmakers, the efforts to end marine mammal killing and to protect the animals’ environment has been ongoing. Just before the Oscars award ceremony, they teamed with vegan eco-activists to go undercover into a restaurant suspected of selling whale meat, which is illegal in the United States according to the Marine
Mammal Protection Act.

After a DNA test confirmed that the flesh being served was from the endangered Sei whale, the violation was reported to officials. The film’s director, Louie Psihoyos, who had participated in the activity, said that the exposure of whale hunting, like his film, is about saving the animals as well as the biosphere that supports their lives.

Louie Psihoyos – Director of Oscar winning film The Cove (M): We’re trying to solve the problem in one little cove, but it’s really a microcosm of what’s going on in the oceans. With all the fertilizers and run-offs and pesticides, it’s killing the oceans.

VOICE: “The Cove” also exposes the fact that the dolphins being hunted are already contaminated with mercury from the polluted ocean waters.

Those hunting them use underwater sonar waves, which drive the panicked dolphins into a small cove that soon turns bloody red as they are brutally speared or knifed to death.

As it turns out, this dolphin meat has some of the highest levels of mercury known in Japan, with the potential to cause neurological damage, especially in children. In addition, the dolphins that are not killed outright are captured and sold into lives of captivity and isolation to entertain humans in zoos and aquariums.
The film’s message is thus to raise awareness about these practices, which wreak harm to so many beings.

Louie Psihoyos (M): The only way that we can save the life of a dolphin now is to prove that we made his environment so toxic, that we can no longer eat them.

It shows you the amount of respect that we lost for the animal and the amount of respect that we lost for ourselves. We’re doing what no wild animal will do; we’re fouling our own nest.

VOICE: We congratulate and thank Mr. Psihoyos and co-creators of “The Cove” for working to preserve our precious oceans and their beautiful inhabitants.

May we treat more kindly our marine friends and the vital seas that we both share and depend upon.

Louie Psihoyos (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

VOICE: In a November 2008 interview with Ireland’s East Coast Radio FM, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the issue of tainted dolphin meat and once more encouraged the protection of all marine life for our planetary survival.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Some Japanese scientists stated that these products should be taken off the shelves immediately. And Dr. Palombi of Harvard University gave the same advice to the Japanese government - that they should ban dolphin fishing and they should ban dolphin meat selling in the market.

To stop this destructive practice of fishing, the solution is the vegan diet, no fishy stuff in our meals. Choose the life- and Earth-saving vegan diet. Protect animals and the environment.

And pray that all will heed the scientists’ wise counsel and turn to benevolent life courses which will in turn offer a benevolent life on Earth.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/in-sushi-sting-oscar-winners-nab-restaurant-selling-whale/19389362
http://www.france24.com/en/20100308-oscar-winning-film-makers-deny-japan-bashing
http://eii.org/saveJapanDolphins/coveEmail11a.htmlI
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/asia/20iht-dolphin.1.10223011.html?_r=1
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/30/world/main3772997.shtml

Captive dolphins suffer mistreatment and death in confinement

A recent report by the US-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society tracking 43 dolphins exported from Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine found that half had perished in captivity and 9 had to be returned to Russia.

Indeed, other research has shown that this 50% fatality rate of dolphins in captivity is typical. In February 2010, Ukrainian officials announced that two dolphinariums would be shut down owing to massive violations.

The marine mammals were being kept in 16-meter pools where they became highly susceptible to bacterial pneumonia and septicemia, the most frequent cause of death for confined dolphins.

In Turkey, four dolphinarium deaths within just one week of in the Mediterranean resort town of Alanya caused an international tour operator to cancel visits to the site.

While there is no exact count of total dolphins in captivity, they number in the thousands, with return to the wild rarely possible. Supreme Master Television spoke with Dr. Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist for The Humane Society of the United States, who explained the horrendous methods used to capture dolphins and other cetaceans.

Dr. Rose (f): There is another method of collecting dolphins from the wild, it is to hunt, and the dolphins that are not selected to be sold alive are killed.

VOICE: Moreover, being held in captivity inflicts many psychological harms upon the marine animals.

Dr. Rose (f): It’s the same four walls, and there is nothing new in, inside them, day after day after day so it must be terribly, terribly boring for them, and boredom is stressful; it can in fact kill you, it’s so stressful. It can lead to depression, it can lead to high blood pressure, it can lead to all sorts of physiological changes.

Dr. Rose (f): Proponents of captivity try to portray that they feed their whales, you know, great food 3 times a day, whatever it is, as a benefit of captivity.

But they become unhealthy, they become lethargic, some of them become depressed. They have their groceries delivered at the door, and they get ill, and they die young.

Yes, all of these things are provided for them, but it takes away their reason for living. It takes away their purpose.

VOICE: Dr. Rose, we thank you for your valuable insights and send our gratitude to the Humane Society of the United States as well as all organizations, individuals and governments working to safeguard the dolphins and other marine mammals. Let us cherish these divine creations in their natural state of freedom so that we can continue to receive their gifts of love, grace and beauty.

As part of her frequent efforts to safeguard the welfare of all beings, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the need to respect our animal co-inhabitants during an October 2008 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We should not allow any more of this cruel practice. Buddha would never allow this. Jesus would never allow this. None of the Master of the Buddhas would allow this. So, they belong to nature, the elephants or the wild animals. They should stay there.

We should not continue forcing more free beings into cramped and suffocated environment. That is not correct. That is not natural to them. That is not intended from Heaven.

We have to act like a human. We must be noble and kind and we take care of the wild as much as we can

Supreme Master Ching Hai: No meat, no animals product, then you can see. Everything will return to a more peaceful, abundance because Heaven is merciful. And we have to start to be merciful like Heaven, then we can experience Heaven.

http://library.thinkquest.org/17963/captivity.html
http://www.inkokomo.com/dolphin/captivity.html
http://www.oceansentry.org/lang-en/menu-news/menu-marine-mammals/2603-dolphin-deaths-in-turkey.html
http://www.wdcs.org/submissions_bin/captivitybnd.pdf
http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/11/prop/14.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/22/AR2010022203637.html?hpid=sec-health
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=international-tour-operator-cancels-dolphinarium-trips-to-turkey-2010-02-25
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=-2010-02-18
http://bsanna-news.ukrinform.ua/newsitem.php?id=12378&lang=en

Beached whales, dolphins rescued in Australia

Tasmanians work to save beached whales. On Tasmania’s King Island in Australia, 189 pilot whales and 10 dolphins were found stranded on Naracoopa Beach. Tragically, only 54 pilot whales and 7 dolphins were still alive by the end of the day they were discovered. Rescuers kept the marine mammals wet and covered as they used equipment to dig channels for their return to the sea. The rescuers then used boats, jet skis, backhoes, and their own physical strength to guide most of the survivors back into deeper water.

We are deeply saddened by this tragic event that caused the perishing of so many innocent whales and dolphins. Our sincere thanks to the heroic rescuers for their caring and timely endeavors as we pray that humanity quickly turns to more compassionate ways, to ensure the health and comfort of these and all co-inhabitants.

In August 2008, with recent news of another such fatal marine mammal beaching, Supreme Master Ching Hai shared at an international seminar her concern and insights regarding the plight of the beings at sea:

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So many whales and dolphins, they wash up ashore and die. There are so many dead zones in the ocean. It’s suffocating them, so they have to swim out of the water where it’s full of the poisonous gas that has been released! They cannot bear it, they cannot breathe. So they have to get out of it. For them, life is in the water, but if water is full of poison, of course they come out. But when they come out, they die, too. Because they have no water. They stay in the ocean, they die; they came out, they die. There is no choice for them.

This is the worst of all cruelty, that the people don’t take care of the environment. And let all beings keep dying like this. Just to be vegetarian, how difficult can it be? Even the dolphins have to swim out of the ocean; because they think like that they can survive, even risking their lives. So why not we can just can change to vegetarian diet?