SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Pat Derby – a former Hollywood trainer for Flipper, Lassie and other performing animals who later devoted her life to pro...

It was a weekend of celebration for Ric O'Barry and his lifelong movement to save dolphins. With an Oscar for The Cove, the Japanese government has to take note, and change is on its way.

"The dolphin hunters are playing games with us saying they're not killing dolphins anymore -- they're killing the pilot whale," O'Barry said. "Well, the pilot whale is in fact a large dolphin."

In Taiji, Japan, dolphins are herded into an isolated cove. The best get sold to sea parks and aquariums, the rest are killed for their meat. The Cove exposes the atrocity to the world.

I am not a fan of whaling and have long supported the ban, but what Sea Shepherd and its friends have been doing, has been mostly ineffective and somewhat counterproductive.

If The Cove were a fiction film, it would be derided as far-fetched. The fact that it's nonfiction doesn't make it any easier to believe because the facts are so disturbing.