PLEASE SIGN? A petition to end massacre of dolphins

( 13 comments as of 2:42...Thank you, all who have cared enough to read and sign....but I see that I can write a diary...but I cannot make most of you out there ...care)

I well remember my excitement as a child, when a neighbor, a young scientist, first told me about the studies into dolphin intelligence. She was thrilled too, and kind enough to share what she was learning with a kid who loved and was fascinated by animals.

Since then, more studies have confirmed and enhanced those findings.
Dolphins and porpoises are among the MOST intelligent mammals on the planet. They are at least as sophisticated as the great apes, they recognise themselves in a mirror, and because they learn from one another , any mass slaughter not only kills many animals, but the body of knowledge that each one holds.

There is more after the fold, including a petition to end the unnecessary slaughter of a most beautiful sentient species...do PLEASE consider signing it.

Facts about Dolphin Drive Hunts in Japan
( this from www.theoceanproject.org, where you can find much more...)

During drive hunts, migrating pods of dolphins and other small whales are first panicked and confused by loud banging, then herded, by the hundreds, into shallow coves and butchered, one by one, by fishermen. Every year, some 20,000 small cetaceans of several species, some of which are endangered, including bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, spotted dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, short-finned pilot whales, white-sided dolphins and false killer whales, are killed or taken in the drives, sometimes illegally.

This cruel and inhumane practice is sanctioned and controlled by the Government of Japan, which claims that these animals compete with the fishermen and slaughtering them is a means of pest control, but no evidence for this claim exists. The dolphins are processed and used as pet food or fertilizer, and the government is encouraging the consumption of dolphin meat. In fact, the hunts would be economically unviable without the sale of live dolphins captured during the drives to dolphinariums in Asia and elsewhere.

There is abundant scientific evidence that drive hunts inflict incredible pain and suffering on highly intelligent, self-aware, and socially complex animals. The hunts have been universally condemned on both welfare and conservation grounds, but repeated requests to end them, from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and numerous other scientific and conservation organizations, have been ignored.

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Please....take a moment and sign the petition to stop this most cruel, inhumane and unnecessary mass killing of a sensitive and highly intelligent species.
Thank you.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/...