Every year in a sleepy little Japanese village called Taiji, a horrific event takes place. And it took one small group of activists with undercover cameras to expose this bloody secret to the world…

This Sunday at 8.30pm on ABC1, you can see the Academy Award-winning film for yourself. The Cove threw the international spotlight onto Taiji and is so explosive that officials in Japan tried to stop it from ever being shown there.

Well now it has been, and as more people become aware and speak out for these dolphins, the harder it becomes for the brutal killing to continue. So make sure you tune in and tell all your friends to watch too!

Head here for more info on the film and ways that you can help save dolphins in Taiji.

Have you already seen the film? What did you think?

A couple of weeks ago, in Japan, Kuru the dolphin jumped out of her tank during a show at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. Former dolphin trainer (from Flipper) turned dolphin advocate and star of The Cove, Ric O'Barry has said "The habitat of that [dolphin] is so unnatural it leapt out of the tank in desperation. It wanted to end it. Why does a person jump out of a building?" Ric may have a point.

While this footage is shocking, it must be a common enough occurrence, since the handlers keep mats around the aquarium's edge to minimise injury when the animals do this exact thing! And why wouldn't she want out?

Each year thousands of cetaceans (dolphins and whales) are captured from the wild and placed into small tanks in 'Sea Worlds' around the globe. The animals are then taught to perform tricks for human entertainment. Basically it’s a circus for cetaceans. But most people never hear about the horrendous conditions these animals are made to endure.

Like other animals in circuses, these animals don’t belong in prisons, but that's what many marine parks are. Everything about a whale or dolphin's life in captivity is restrictive. Dolpins and whales swim dozens and in some cases upwards of a hundred kilometres in a day. Yet in captivity their tanks are often so small that it only takes them a few seconds to swim from end to end. Many of these highly social animals are kept in solitary confinement. And for animals that rely on sonar, their small tanks must be like deafening echo-chambers.

To combat stress related ulcers and 'behavioural problems' these animals are often fed a cocktail of antibiotics and other drugs. Even still, most dolphins in captivity don't live to 20 years (less than half of their natural lifespan), and most orca whales, who could live to be 90+ in the wild, don't live past 10 years of age in captivity.

So it would come as little surprise if Kuru was hoping to end it the other week.

I'm sure you'd agree that locking any animal in a tiny enclosure and forcing them to perform tricks is cruel. Kuru and her cetacean buddies deserve a better life. Just like animal circuses, the strongest message we can send to marine parks with animal performances is simply not to visit them. We can all make a difference and give animals a better life.

What do you think about what happened with Kuru?

You learn something new every day... unfortunately!

So I thought by now I was pretty aware of international animal cruelty, but a new documentary I saw last week really shocked me. The Cove, which is being launched in Australia next week, exposes the mass slaughter of Dolphins in a little Japanese town called Taiji.

"Mass dolphin slaughter?? What the!!" Yes, that's right, each year, starting on the 1st of September a whopping 23,000 terrified dolphins are herded into a secret cove. They are netted in, unable to escape and are slowly speared or stabbed to death!

And why haven't we heard of this before? Because the Japanese Government has gone to painstaking efforts to keep the slaughter a secret, even from it's own people. Dolphin meat is being labelled and sold as other types of seafood and the vast majority of Japanese citizens have no idea this is happening, or that they are eating it!

International dolphin expert and former trainer Richard O'Barry has gone to incredible efforts to expose this terrible secret. In creating The Cove he took an elite team of scientists, filmmakers and free-divers to Taiji. He hopes the international outrage The Cove will create will put a stop to this barbaric practice... HOPEFULLY before this September's slaughter begins.

So what can you do? Fortunately, as Australians we're in a unique position to help! Taiji just so happens to be the Sister-City of Broome in WA. By putting pressure on Broome to sever it's ties with Taiji we will expose the slaughter and shame Japan. The good news is that most Japanese people see dolphins the same way westerners do – as intelligent, graceful animals who should never be hurt or eaten – but whilst the slaughter remains a secret sadly it will continue.

[UPDATE: Some great news! After a flood of letters, Broome Councilors met over the weekend and decided to sever their ties with the Japanese town of Taiji.

We still have a couple of 2-for-1 passes to giveaway to see The Cove (opening this week)! If you want to score yourself a pass then please write to Broome to thank them for taking a stand against the dolphin slaughter in Japan and severing their ties with Taiji. Then leave a comment below to let us know you've written.

Broome Shire Council: shire@broome.wa.gov.au

Thanks to everyone who helped in this campaign!]