Dolphin slaughter: Taiji cove hunt begins in Japan

The British and American ambassadors to Japan have joined a chorus of international criticism at fishermen there who hunt and slaughter dolphins.

The annual killing takes place at a coastal town in the south of the country where the mammals are driven into a pen and then killed for their meat using metal poles.

Environmentalists claim the practice is cruel and dolphins can take up to 30 minutes to die by suffocation or drowning.

Rupert Wingfield Hayes says dolphins are being dragged up onto the beach and slaughtered.