Ric O'Barry reports campaign success in China

Good news continues from China, where I have been on a book promotion tour for the Simplified Chinese edition of The Cove, with Swiss journalist Hans Peter Roth and photographer Sasha Abdolmajid.

A user of the Chinese social media platform WeChat posting under the name Enterprise Volunteers on May 23, 2015 merged three media reports about publication of the Chinese edition of The Cove and posted them together with a poll.

The poll question is “Are you still going to go to a dolphin show?” Respondents were asked to choose among four options:

Dolphin exhibit at the Beijing Zoo. Photo by Sasha Abdolmajid, relayed by Ric O’Barry.

1. Yes, I will still go to a dolphin show.

2. No, because how we consume can change the world.

3. I won’t go, and will tell friends not to go.

4. Whatever, I’ll just follow others.

Through May 28, more than 100,000 people had viewed the posting, of whom over 60,000 voted.

About two-thirds of the respondents chose the option “I won’t go see a dolphin show and will tell friends not to go.”

The motto of Enterprise Volunteers is “What you choose to consume can change the world.”

China is the second largest buyer of Taiji dolphins after Japan, but most Chinese people would have no idea where the dolphins they love come from, or how they are captured and suffer cruelly in captivity.

The language barrier means they mostly have not had access to the information we take for granted. It is therefore fantastic to see just how much awareness continues to be raised by the publication of The Cove.