Ric O'Barry's Documentary 'The Cove' May Have Ended Dolphin Killing
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net
September 2009

I guess movies really can change the world? One of the most talked about documentaries this year was one called The Cove directed by Louie Psihoyos. The film documented a covert attempt spearheaded by Richard O'Barry (of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition) and a group of experts to infiltrate and capture on tape the mass killing of dolphins that occurs in a secret cove in Taiji, Japan. It was talked about not only for its filmmaking aspects and riveting story, but also because it was showing the world what happens in that secret cove in Japan. O'Barry just updated a blog with some apparently incredible news.

From the update on the TakePart blog yesterday written mainly by O'Barry, who is currently in Taiji with a number of major media outlets from countries like Germany, England, and most importantly, Japan:

O'Barry is currently in Taiji, Japan with European and Japanese journalists in anticipation of the annual dolphin slaughter that usually takes place the first week of September.

"Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight."

Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch brings up comparisons to other documentaries like Super Size Me (which forced fast food restaurants to change the way they operate) and An Inconvenient Truth ("which injected global warming into the mainstream discussion in a big way"). If O'Barry and The Cove have effectively put an end to this, and not just caused them to move locations or change their timing, this is incredible news. It's not often a film can come along, especially a little independent documentary like this one, and truly change the world. It brings a smile to my face to know they had such a powerful impact.


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