In this article from National Geographic, it goes over the issue of dolphin hunting that occurs annually in Taiji, Japan. The Fishermen would lower one end of a steel pipe into the water, and then they would strike the pipe with mallets to through off the dolphins sonar. The dolphins would get pushed back near a bay where a net from the fishermen will close them in. The dolphins are left there overnight to calm down since they’re panicked at this point. the fisherman would then come back and slice the dolphins throats. According to the article, Fishermen would gather about 1,000 of these dolphins and would either slaughter them for their meat or sell them to marine parks. Also in Japan they hunt whales as well. I know these hunts have been going on for years in Japan but I find it not right for these amazing creatures to be killed. Well in general I don’t like the idea of any animal to be hunted down especially to turn them into merchandise.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/wildlife-taiji-dolphin-hunt-begins/

One of my contemporary issue that I feel needs more attention towards is animals that pet shops sell. Most of the puppies and kittens that are sold within these shops are sick and/or injured. They are kept in unsanitary conditions and do not get the proper veterinary treatment. It’s even worse knowing the fact that the puppies are brought from mills that are notorious for their cramped, filthy conditions and for their continuous breeding of unhealthy and hard-to-socialize animals. This article from PETA also includes most of the small pets that are seen in pet stores such as birds, rabbits and other small animals comes from mills as well. Most of the time I only hear about puppy mills but now I learned that more animals are brought in the terrible conditions. I want to bring more awareness to this issue because these animals are just being treated as merchandise and being exposed to terrible conditions.

http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animal-issues/companion-animals-factsheets/pet-shops-bargain-animals/

This illustration from Dante’s Inferno was illustrated by Gustave Dore. He uses value to make the center a big focal point. By getting progressively darker away from the middle of the page it leaves an empty space in the middle. Also I think it shows the gray-scale as it shows various levels of value. It’s like the middle is drawing you in the light  with the edges of the page being in shadow.The way everything is moving towards the light can give of a sense of curiosity to see what’s so attracting about that light.