*Option #3: Become an ACTIVIST

Of the many ways to get involved with this issue, becoming an activist is the most intense, demanding, and rewarding option of them all.  Not only are you standing up for your beliefs, but you are actively and publicly making a difference at the same time. There are many different types of activists, each requiring a different level of exertion and commitment. 

Here are a few ways that you can become an activist:

1. Protest

Perhaps one of the oldest methods of activism, protesting serves as the most public and emotionally contagious way of spreading awareness for a given cause. Since putting an end to the Taiji drive hunts is a worldwide movement, protests are organized annually in all major cities around the world. If you feel strongly enough about this cause, then make a sign, collaborate with others, and protest against the dolphin massacre.

2. Get Friends and Family Involved

If you haven't already spread awareness of this atrocity to your friends and family members, I suggest you share this blog with them immediately. Friends and family are great people to get involved since they are usually supportive of issues that are most important to you. If your passionately contagious attitude isn't enough to get them behind the movement, then the writings and videos on this blog will definitely change their minds. To be honest though, I haven't showed one person this video that didn't immediately feel the urge to do something about this atrocity afterward. 

3. Risk It All for Reward

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is offering a $10,000 cash reward for the person or persons who can best document the annual slaughter of dolphins and small cetaceans in Taiji, Japan. Due to increasing access restrictions by the Taiji government, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is looking to motivate Japanese citizens to intervene and capture footage of the slaughter. The cash prize goes to the person who captures the most graphic images of the hunt. The photos and/or videos will be utilized by the Society to further expose the annual dolphin massacre.

*What Can YOU Do to Get Involved?

Throughout this blog, I've covered a multitude of reasons as to why the dolphin massacre must be put to an end.  By now, it should be very clear that this is an atrocity that violates multiple legal and ethical standards. However, it is not enough to merely be upset. 

You must take ACTION

There are a variety of ways to get involved, depending on your level of passion and commitment. There is no "right" choice of involvement; each of these options adds to the momentum of our movement. I will cover this array of options throughout the next few posts.

*What Right Do We Have...

The fishermen of Taiji have been conducting drive hunts for close to 4oo years. Only a select few fishermen, about 25, are allowed to participate in the hunt every year. This is a very noble position, and they take it with honor. To them, this is not an animal rights issue, it's tradition. Who are we to deny them the right to carry on what has been passed down from generation to generation?

They want you to feel guilty.

They are trying to justify the killing of dolphins by saying that the hunt itself has a deeper meaning for their culture. This is a lie. Some 400 years ago, when the drive hunts first started, the fishermen only hunted for whales. They would utilize every part of the whale, both for food and for supplies. It became tradition to pass down the knowledge of whale hunting from generation to generation. The inclusion of dolphins has been a recent addition to the hunt and they are now the primary species that are targeted and killed every season.

Don't listen to their guilt trip about "culture". The methods of killing that are utilized are inhumane, and must be stopped. There is obviously something fishy going on (no pun intended) if they go to such great measures to hide what they are doing.

It's not about culture. It's not even about whose culture is right or wrong. It's about our responsibility as global citizens to see this atrocity and its negative effects and to know that something must be done to stop it.

Celebrity Wonder-Girl Takes a Stand

In the Fall of 2007, Heroes star Hayden Panettiere personally took a stand against the dolphin massacre by joining the Sea Shephard activist group and staging a protest in the Taiji Bay.

The following is a news segment covering the event.