Leilani Munter Wants Team To Watch Over “The Cove” In Japan
Written by Vegetarian Star on September 23rd, 2010 in Animal Issues, Athletes-Games-Sports.
Leilani Munter. Credit: Alan Moore
Dolphin killings have resumed at The Cove in Japan, despite awareness brought to the issue by the award winning documentary with the same title. Leilani Munter had written about her plans to visit the area awhile ago, and VegNews caught up with her to get an update on her activist experience.
The race car driver explained that while the activists are watching the area during the season from September through March, the hunters don’t do much killing. But there are not enough people to keep vigil through that entire time, something she’d like to change.
“What we’re trying to do is get a whole team of people to Taiji, and be there for the whole killing season, which is September through to March, because that’s really what needs to happen. If it’s our presence there that’s deterring the killing then we can’t just be there for a week from September 1. That’s the challenge, and for that reason I’m going back to Taiji in a couple of weeks.”
Leilani says, as expected, reaction to her and other activists’ presence has been less the friendly.
“We tried to talk to them about mercury poisoning, and then we had one right wing nationalist who was very upset and came down the road with bullhorns, saying “f*** off movie The Cove,” “apologize for Hiroshima,” and he was very aggressive. He approached me, and he was very angry and yelling and telling us we were liars.”
It could be the hostility is aimed at foreigners in general who are there to make suggestions about how to run their culture and country. But maybe once they’ve gotten their initial anger out, some will be willing to listen.
“But we talked to him, he spoke English, so the dialogue went on for awhile, and by the end of the conversation he apologized and by the end he welcomed us to Taiji and left.”
More at VegNews.
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