TakePart Joins Ric O’Barry’s DolphinProject to End the Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji, Japan

LOS ANGELES (November 20, 2014) — Participant Media’s digital news and lifestyle magazine and social action platform TakePart.com joins The Cove’s Ric O’Barry, and DolphinProject.net to help end the mass slaughter of dolphins including juveniles and babies for food, and their capture for entertainment. The campaign, an extension of the powerful documentary ‘The Cove’ (2009), has for the past five years maintained a global spotlight on the yearly killing of thousands of dolphins in Taiji, Japan and the capture of dolphins for entertainment around the world. This year, the aim is to end the slaughter once and for all.

“One million individuals demanding the end the dolphin slaughter in Taiji sends a powerful message that is impossible to ignore. Join the petition and stand up for dolphins, it’s the right thing to do. These are smart, intelligent and beautiful creatures who should not be hunted for food or entertainment,” said Ric O’ Barry.

‘The Cove’ sounded the alarm on the dolphin killings in Japan and started a worldwide movement that continues today,” said Chad Boettcher, EVP of Social Action for Participant Media. “The dolphin killing season in Taiji doesn’t end until March, which means that thousands of animals are at risk for the next four months. We urge everyone to sign the petition and end this slaughter once and for all.”

Join the campaign to help put an end to the slaughter. Text DOLPHIN to 77177 for updates on The Cove campaign or tweet your support with:

Thousands of dolphins & porpoises are killed in Japan yearly. Sign the petition to end the slaughter: takepart.com/cove #DolphinProject

To date, more than 800,000 people have signed the petition, which calls on President Obama, Vice President Biden, the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; and Yasuhisa Shiozaki; Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan to end the slaughter for good. The campaign aims to obtain in excess of one million signatures on the petition to be presented at a special event in D.C. in 2015.

From now through March 2015, over a thousand dolphins and porpoises will be rounded up and brutally killed in the hidden cove in Taiji, Japan for use as food. The remaining dolphins are sold to dolphinariums and marine parks around the world into a lifetime of captivity. Thousands of these highly sophisticated creatures with complex social structures and communication will be killed or sold for amusement.

Visit the campaign at www.takepart.com/cove to:

· Sign the petition

· Watch events unfold in real time via a live stream from the Taiji cove

· Find out where dolphins captured at the cove end up as entertainment

· Get informed on the issues around dolphin killing season

· Find out more about the plight of dolphins and other marine mammals around the world.

About TakePart

Participant Media’s TakePart (http://www.TakePart.com) is a digital news, lifestyle magazine and social action platform for the conscious consumer. TakePart’s mission is to inspire and accelerate social change by connecting compelling content to action, and its proprietary “TakePart Action Platform” (TAP) is a widget that allows the site to embed petitions, pledges, and other actions within relevant editorial content. TAP also powers engagement for Participant Media films and for Participant’s television network Pivot, (http://www.Pivot.tv) available in over 45 million homes in the US.

Participant (http://www.ParticipantMedia.com) is the global entertainment company founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll to focus on feature film, television, publishing, and digital content that inspires social change. Through its films, social action campaigns, digital network, and its television network, Participant seeks to entertain, encourage and empower every individual to take action.