The Cove (http://thecovemovie.com/) is a recently released documentary about an annual cull of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. You can see the trailer for the movie at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYKNCN1ESZM. It has gained a lot of attention in the West because of the brutality with which the animals are killed and the apparent pointlessness of it all—the market for dolphin meat in Japan is small (as it also is for whale meat). While reviews of the film have largely been positive (in the sense of it being a worthy film), a review in the Financial Times asked some thought-provoking questions that suggest a willingness in the West to moralize without sufficiently questioning equally brutal realities closer to home:
“The Cove is weakened only by a few unanswered questions, which the film sheers past in its headlong course. Why is it worse to slaughter dolphins than to slaughter cows or pigs? (Just because dolphins are cuter?) What of Japan's argument that culling dolphins helps preserve smaller fish? And what is so merciful - in comparison with the revealed brutality of Taiji's killing methods - about western slaughterhouses and murder-for-meat industries?”
Have a good weekend.
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
The grooming of an ingénue
By Nigel Andrews
1109 words
29 October 2009
Europe Ed1
15
