winning documentary about a Japanese town that slaughters dolphins delivered a petition to the US Embassy in Tokyo Thursday demanding an end to the hunt. “The Cove” star Ric O'Barry handed the petition, signed by 1.7 million people from 155 nations, to an official at the embassy's gate. O'Barry, 70, the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s “Flipper” TV show, was flanked by police and followed by dozens of supporters with flags and a banner saying, “Let's save Japanese dolphins.” He had hoped to deliver the petition to the Japanese fisheries agency but canceled the plan after an ultra-nationalist group known for violence threatened him. Nationalist groups say criticism of dolphin hunting is a denigration of the country's culture. The Japanese government allows a hunt of about 20,000 dolphins a year, and argues that killing them - and also whales - is no different from raising cows for slaughter. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat and, even in Taiji, it is not consumed regularly.
