After our last event, ‘Light Up Taiji’ on January 17th 2017, with an attendance of almost 1,000 people, primarily due to personal and family issues, along with my colleague Nicole, we left our positions as event organisers for London Against The Dolphin Massacre. I felt sad that circumstances beyond my control forced me to stop as I had put 100% of my heart and soul into the campaign, but I’m more saddened to see the numbers of attendees dwindle since that date.
They were difficult events to organize, sometimes taking six months of continuous promotional work to get numbers, but this was the part I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s not as simple as adding an event page on Facebook and expecting numbers to grow organically. However, having to trudge through the not-so-nice aspects of social media certainly took its toll on both the events and on us. It’s a dreadful shame.
In 2018 I was due to read a speech for Dolphin Freedom U.K at Japan Dolphins Day, London. Unfortunately, this didn’t go to plan as a tragedy happened on the train line causing long delays. I’m quite sure most people would have given up, but we decided to continue our journey as we felt that we would be letting people down if the speech wasn’t read or the Thomas Cook banner handed over to team members for future work. We finally arrived after a stressful four-hour journey that usually takes an hour.
Sadly, after all the effort of getting there, we were told the speeches had already taken place. So, without footage of the announcement for campaign work, we used the chrysanthemum dolphin and Japanese sign that was made for the day creatively.
Thankfully, Dolphin Project’s Ric and Helene O’Barry assisted us by holding the banner. We photographed them and used it for the targeted campaign against Thomas Cook who were selling holidays to a Chinese hotel holding Taiji dolphins and Russian belugas. After such a stressful day, we left with Ric and Helene to enjoy a beverage and discuss campaign work in good company.
Press Articles
- TRAVEL WEEKLY – Thomas Cook to audit whale and dolphin animal park in China
- TTG MEDIA – Thomas Cook confirms further audits after Dolphin Freedom criticism
- JING TRAVEL *archived – Thomas Cook Facing Backlash Over Animal Welfare in Hainan
- DOLPHIN PROJECT – Thomas Cook and the five freedoms
- DAILY MAIL – Thomas Cook under fire for promoting a marine resort in China that displays beluga whales – and dolphins caught in ‘horrific and cruel’ Japanese hunts
- DAILY MAIL – Thomas Cook shares plunge by a Third
Credits
Photos : (c) Jo Phillips.
Helene O’Barry & Jo (c) C. Kempen.
Graphic made for Japan Dolphins Day, London.
Captive cetacean photos by Dolphin Project.
Meme made using Helene O’Barry’s words for awareness and education. Group photo: The Bitter Sling, Mayfair, 2016 by Jo.
