Ticos to urge Japan to stop killing dolphins

Members in Costa Rica of the international conservation group Sea Shepherd will be collecting signatures for a campaign to request the Japanese Embassy to send a message back home to stop the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

Starting on Aug. 31 each year, more than 20,000 dolphins are killed and consumed or used for pet food, according to Sea Shepherd.

For six months dolphins are persecuted and rounded up, and end up in aquariums or converted into a plate of food.

The local campaign also calls for people to draw or make paper dolphins and deliver them to the Japanese Embassy, located in Pavas, west of San José.

The group also will send the diplomats a formal request demanding that dolphin kills be stopped, along with collected signatures.

Dolphins that are killed in Japan belong to the same pods who migrate each year to Costa Rican waters looking for warmer temperatures to breed and bear their young.