(Beth Clifton collage)
“I was hoping it was a mistake.
“It wasn’t, but it was a brutal wake up call.”
I watched the video of the Avatar: The Way of Water Tokyo Press Event several times – held on/around December 10 at the Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa. I hope you will watch it, too. (See link below.)
To watch this particular group of filmmakers, whom I greatly admire and respect, applaud captive dolphins performing tricks in a tiny pool absolutely floored me. I was hoping it was a mistake. It wasn’t, but it was a brutal wake up call.
Video credit: YouTube/LOWKEY GEEK!
The clapping really got to me. It wasn’t just James Cameron. Everyone clapped. Everyone was amused and entertained: Jon Landau, Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang.
Apparently a good time was had by all.
Ric O’Barry in Taiji.
(Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project photo)
Taiji dolphin slaughter, fueled by captive dolphin sales, goes on
And at the same time, the Taiji dolphin slaughter — and related captures — rage on in Taiji, opposed by too few.
These are very intelligent people watching the live dolphin show. They are world travelers. Educated. Some are vegan.
At least some of these filmmakers have probably seen The Cove movie, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2010.
Watching this video of the Avatar: The Way of Water press event left me feeling completely hopeless. It made me question everything we have been doing. Still does.
Our work at Dolphin Project is very specific: it’s all about the dolphin captivity issue. That’s our issue. We don’t profess to be saving the entire planet, or even the seven seas and the rainforest. We don’t have goals of the highest abstraction. We are focused on the dolphin captivity issue like a laser beam – educating and enlightening so people can make educated choices about which forms of “entertainment” they choose to support.
(Ric O’Barry Facebook photo)
Have I wasted the last 52 years of my life?
Now I’m wondering if I’ve wasted the last fifty-two years of my life doing this? After all, if we can’t even get through to this select group of well-educated filmmakers, maybe we’re wasting our time trying to educate ordinary people in hopes they will think twice before buying a ticket from the dolphin abusement park industry?
At 83, I don’t want to spend my time wasting my time. I have been forced to rethink everything, now that I know we’re not even getting through to people whom I truly believed were already onboard: the producers, director and cast of the Avatar movies – blockbuster films about saving the environment, which includes dolphins.
Perhaps the film’s very title – Avatar: The Way of Water – is the silver lining in all this. For isn’t the way of water both gentle and strong, with water making up 90% of our blood plasma? Perhaps too, it is within our biological make-up to understand that water, and what depends on it, is sacred and a birthright amongst all creatures, including dolphins and other whales.
Inviting Cameron et al to Taiji
I am hereby formally inviting James Cameron, Jon Landau, Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang to join me and our team in Taiji, Japan.
Yes, I’ll be going back and am formally asking the Avatar team to join me for just a few days.
I’d like to personally show them where the dolphins that entertained them so well most likely came from.
I’d like to show them exactly how dolphins are captured in Japan. I’d like to show them that trainers who purport to care for dolphins work alongside those who brutally slaughter dolphins.
Would they ever applaud another dolphin show?
I’m sure, once they witness this first-hand, they will never applaud another dolphin show again.
Please share this letter far and wide, and help educate on the cruelty of dolphin captivity!
(Beth Clifton collage)
(See also Dolphin defender Ric O’Barry, cleared by Tokyo court, plans return to Japan, Ric O’Barry rips SeaWorld & HSUS execs for grandstanding on Taiji, and “I shall return,” Ric O’Barry tells Taiji after torture.)
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The particular folks named by Ric should know better – a lot better. I was looking forward to seeing the Avatar followup. Now I’ll take a pass.
Several more reasons why I avoid “celebs” and don’t watch many films, especially US films. And I wouldn’t give 2c about any of these, but SIGOURNEY WEAVER, of “Gorillas in the Mist” fame? Seriously?
Sharing, with gratitude, disgust, and frustration.
NO!!!!!!!!!! This is incredibly….. BAD. In disbelief. We must find different ways of ‘speaking’ to people. I myself am finishing my first film. I always remember Merritt writing to me and saying (apologies if I misquote), that the film Lassie did more to help the animal movement than many other efforts. So, my fim which supports rangers and wildlife in Africa has ONE wildlife scene and less than 3 minutes in the 90 minutes which includes actual rangers. (Because hey, they’re black men and my American audience is bias.) The film is NOT for wildlife lovers. It is for Joe Blow and his wife down the street, the stranger in the shopping mall, the folk who would never watch a doc or give to wildlife. THOSE are the people I want to reach and who by the end of the film will dip into their pockets. I NEVER once use the words ‘save, protect, help’ etc. We’ll see. Thank you Merritt for your words almost 20 years ago!!!!
It is terrible to be betrayed, but please remember that there are countless other ordinary people like me who heard you and understood that attending shows at Sea World, or for that matter, zoos, circuses, rodeos, etc., was supporting terrible suffering and harm to animals. I never go to these kinds of venues, haven’t for years, and if someone suggests it, I tell them in no uncertain terms why I will not do so. And thanks for the heads up regarding Avatar.
Surprise, surprise! The Hollywood “celebs” are no more intelligent, moral, or committed to making the world a better place for all sentient beings than is the average denizen of skid row (maybe significantly less?). They’re just a lot richer and that qualifier should impose upon them a proportionately greater responsibility to do the right thing than that of your average Joe Sixpack. The behavior cited here just shows how clueless and narcissistic your average “beautiful people” populating the entertainment industry really are. They’re well-practiced at virtue signaling and mouthing all the right platitudes like “sustainability”, “biodiversity”, “inclusivity”… but with few exceptions (e.g., Joaquin Phoenix, Bill Maher) they really don’t care. Ric O’Barry has nothing to apologize for nor should he question the value of his own life and contributions. He, in contrast to the featherweights attending the dolphin show, has fought the good fight, paid his dues, been an inspiration to others, and fully justified the value of his own existence. Rest easy Mr. O’Barry, if the planet is going to Hell it’s not you who bears responsibility.
Disgusting and depressing, but not surprising. Even people who seemed to “get it,” often did not as it turns out. Celebrities for the most part care more for their careers and craft than they care about animals, given a choice. We (and they) may think they truly understand the indignity dolphins and others endure in being forced to perform tricks that mean absolutely nothing to the animals thus coerced.
I hope Ric O’Barry’s invitation to the filmmakers will be accepted and that they will withdraw this film from circulation once they see their egregious error. If James Cameron has moral courage and contrition, may he and his crew atone by making a new film that dignifies dolphins instead of degrading them.
Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns. http://www.upc-online.org
It really is so surprising and disappointing but I don’t think we should write him off. James Cameron and his wife have done a lot to promote veganism and, as he reportedly explained in a private message, his new film, Avatar: The Way of Water is “all about saving whales, and treating them with empathy as equals,” noting that “the whole point of [it is to] shift consciousness.”
I especially like this comment: “[A]n estimated 650,000 dolphins and whales are killed or seriously injured by massive fishing fleets every year .. So, if people really want to save the dolphins, they should put down the damn tuna melt … In fact, stop eating fish altogether and stick to plant-based proteins, as I have for the last 10 years.”
I hope he will issue a public statement of regret about his appearance and behavior at the dolphin show. Good of Ric O’Barry to post the open letter, and thanks to Animals 24-7 for publishing it.
“Avatar 2’s distributer Disney is a member of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums”: https://au.news.yahoo.com/james-cameron-breaks-silence-on-avatar-2-dolphin-stunt-i-was-seething-taiji-japan-052804948.html