New | US ambassador Kennedy draws nationalist ire with tweet condemning Japan dolphin slaughter
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy faces heat from nationalist groups for speaking out against 'inhumane' practice, as fishermen in Taiji prepare to kill 250 dolphins for a traditional cull
A Twitter message condemning the annual slaughter of hundreds of dolphins in a bay in southern Japan by Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Tokyo, has attracted widespread criticism from conservative groups in Japan.
In a message on the social media site on Saturday, ambassador Kennedy said she was "deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing".
Her comments coincided with local fishermen herding a pod of more than 250 dolphins into a small bay close to the town of Taiji, including infant dolphins and a rare albino calf, according to the US conservation group Sea Shepherd, which is monitoring the cull.
The majority of the dolphins will be slaughtered and the meat will go for human consumption or into pet food. A few of the mammals will be sold to marine parks.
The annual slaughter gained international notoriety with the release of the documentary The Cove, which won the Academy Award for the best documentary in 2010.
"The ambassador's tweet was not specific to the situation at Taiji, but it was clearly related to the events that are going on there at the moment," a source at the US Embassy in Tokyo told the South China Morning Post.
"The responses to the tweet in English have been overwhelmingly supportive and have come from all around the world," she said, adding that the message has been shared more than 1,000 times.
