On the 17th January a rare baby albino dolphin was rounded up on the coast of Japan, along with its mother, and herded into Taiji cove where it was netted up for over 20 hrs. They were held among 250 others as part of a selection process for the aquarian industry in which dolphins are picked to perform, slaughtered for meat or thrown back into the sea much weaker.
Albino bottlenose dolphins are extremely rare, and are worth considerable money to marine parks as spectator items and entertainment. So naturally the baby was the first to be pulled out of the pod. As he was being manhandled by the workers, his mother was frantically spy hopping and desperately calling for her baby. After thirty minutes she took herself down to the bottom of the cove and never resurfaced. We fear she is now dead.
The baby albino was then taken to the Taiji Whale Museum where they are proudly displaying her in captivity.
I am not an animal activist. I will voice my concerns for the vulnerable, whether they are human or animal. The reason I have started the petition is not just that theft on a grand scale from the ocean has been committed, but that research supports that baby dolphins in pods of families are not just cared for by their mothers but from everyone in the pod. This baby albino should not be held in a museum, away from those that can care for it.
We ask the Taiji Whale Museum to release the baby albino dolphin so that it can be homed into a supportive environment and rehabilitated.
There has been a lot of media coverage about this already. If enough of us sign this petition, we can help save this baby albino dolphin by putting pressure on Taiji Whale Museum and letting them know that the world is watching.