Last Friday evening some 250 bottlenose dolphins were captured and herded into nets in the famous Taiji Cove in Japan. This is the same cove that came to prominence through the documentary “The Cove.” (It’s on Netflix; watch it.) Juveniles were ripped from their families, literally man-handled in nets and brutally moved into holding areas for selection by marine park trainers. These selected few are hardly saved from the eventual slaughter of their families. Instead, these young intelligent beings, whose lives are centered around their family units, will face years of slavery encased in pools that are no more than glass bathtubs.
Worse than the first scene in “Free Willy,” individual dolphins thrashed wildly as the floating pens were sliced again and again with more nets. These individuals fought for hours as humans used wooden slap paddles and metal banging poles which tortured the sound-sensitive mammals through methods of confusion and disorientation. Adults were regularly trapped in the orange nets in attempts to escape the sounds and violence. The future marine park trainers of these animals, those who will no doubt tell us of their love for the creatures under their care, took a lunch break. This violence was made viewable through a live-stream via the Taiji Dolphin Defense Campaign.
Last week, the Dallas Safari Club auctioned off a permit to hunt and kill an endangered black rhino in Namibia for $350,000. The Safari Club insists the hunt will be well-managed and, thus, only target an older, territorial male who may be preventing younger males from breeding with the age-appropriate females. Corey Knowlton, the once-secret buyer, came forward to say, “I’m a hunter. I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino.” Since revealing his identity, a montage of hunting trophy pictures displaying blooded bears, big cats and many other large wild animals has surfaced from his Facebook page.
On campus, we cannot exit a parking lot without seeing several pro-hunting stickers on the backs of trucks and cars. And right now hundred of pounds of cow flesh manufactured through the factory farming industry are being prepared or consumed in hamburgers across campus.
All of this is the same. It is violent and sick, and affirms that humanity is no longer humane.
We use the word “humane” to describe compassionate or benevolent care. But what aspect of humanity in our lives is humane? We choose to savagely destroy the lives of others in order to eat and clothe ourselves, to maintain our economy and standard of living, and entertain ourselves. And this blatant disregard for other lives is not limited to species, but pervasive in attitudes and the actual lived realities of between nations, races, genders, and abilities.
The beast is no longer the family-oriented marine mammal, the elusive large animals of the African plains, the electrocuted bull trotting toward his execution or the buck in the crosshairs of the newest rifle or compound bow. These “beasts” have no infrastructure committed to the torture and execution of thousands, no currency to support these systems, and no greed to sustain them.
The beast has become human. And we are to blame.
Michelle Fuentes is a doctoral candidate in political theory. Her column runs weekly.
