Please help to stop the killing

Eight days later than usual, but still arriving, this year's seasonal cetaceans killing has begun at Taiji with about 50 pilot whales and 100 bottlenose dolphins being driven into the cove this morning as of 10 Sep 2009.

Taiji's fisherman plan to catch about 2,400 dolphins during this season, as well as pilot whales, neither of which are protected by the International Whaling Commission's ban on whaling. Upwards of 22,000 dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales and false killer whales are taken each hunting season.

Despite how heartbreaking it is to see dolphins killed like this, the kicker of this whole situation is that the meat is sold to a population of people who are for the most part completely unaware that it is laden with mercury (the dolphin meat served in Japan has as much as 5000 times more mercury than allowed by Japanese laws), and mostly unaware that it is dolphin in the first place since the dolphin meat is often labeled simply as "whale meat" in order to fetch a higher price. So not only are the fishermen killing thousands of intelligent animals in a horrific manner, they're also slowly killing people. A sad situation all around.

Please help to stop the killing by signing on the petition

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/stop-the-dolphin-slaughter