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200 Dolphins Await Slaughter In Japan's Taiji Cove
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "CNN reports that more than 200 bottlenose dolphins remain penned in a cove by Japanese fishermen, many of them stressed and bloodied from their attempts to escape before fishermen start to slaughter them for meat. Until now, the fishermen have focused on selecting dolphins to be sold into captivity at marine parks and aquariums in Japan and overseas as twenty-five dolphins, including a rare albino calf, were taken on Saturday 'to a lifetime of imprisonment,' and another 12 on Sunday. 'Many of the 200+ Bottlenose dolphins who are in still the cove are visibly bloody & injured from their attempts to escape the killers,' one update says. Although the hunting of dolphins is widely condemned in the west, Japanese defend the practice as a local custom — and say it is no different to the slaughter of other animals for meat. The Wakayama Prefecture, where Taiji is located condemns the criticism as biased and unfair to the fishermen. 'Taiji dolphin fishermen are just conducting a legal fishing activity in their traditional way in full accordance with regulations and rules under the supervision of both the national and the prefectural governments. Therefore, we believe there are no reasons to criticize the Taiji dolphin fishery.' Meanwhile the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society describes how about 40 to 60 local fishermen work with nets to divide up the pod, whose initial numbers were estimated by the group at more than 250. 'They tighten up the nets to bring each sub-group together then the skiffs push them toward the tarps. Under the tarps in the shallows is where the trainers work with the killers to select the "prettiest" dolphins which will sell and make the best pay day for the hunters,' the group says. The fishermen will 'kill the "undesirable" dolphins (those with nicks and scars) under the tarps to hide from our cameras when that time comes.'"
Dolphins are intelligent, they'll figure a way out of this.
Yes, dolphins are cuter than cows and pigs ... is harvesting one worse than the other?
How many million cows are slaughtered every year? How many pigs? How many chickens?
This sounds like one set of animals has better PR than another.
Really, this isn't the news I would expect for this site.
It is always easier to criticize another country's slaughter of marine mammals than your own. Bowheads are critically endangered, yet they are still hunted is no fanfare.
oddly enough *0.0* japanese children die of starvation, the ethiopian dolphin is safe for now.
They're mammals, not fish.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Cows and especially pigs are highly intelligent animals. And they are totally delicious. Let's change our minds about those before we beat up the Japanese too badly, shall we?
This just sounds like one big emotional summary about fishing. Heavily one-sided as well, which doesn't surprise me considering it's Sea Shepard.
Cry me a river.
Laughable bullshit, trite and untrue. You don't think people campaign to protect endangered sharks or snakes?
Not a biased piece at all. Never would have thought so with ''slaughter'' in the headline /s
I don't see evidence of bias in the word choice. "Slaughter" is the normal English word to describe the killing of animals for food. Pigs and cows are "slaughtered" routinely, in buildings clearly labelled as "slaughterhouses."
What other word would you have them use?
While the liberals tend to live in a fantasy world where nature is paradise and every animal yearns to live free.
Liberals, conservatives... those who pick a side on such simplistic classification may not be the brightest of individuals.
Yes, but not *nearly* so much. Why do you think the mascot for all endangered animals is the panda? It's cute.
...will they be able to certify it as tuna-safe ?
If you see the horror of slaughter, then perhaps you are closer than you realize to seeing that we should only slaughter other animals when we must, and not casually. There are too many humans for that, we will slaughter the whole world.
More importantly for /. how is this news for nerds? Is Dice this intent on turning Slashdot into a political discussion site for people who "like technology"?
Slashdot doesn't really have "glory days", but I'd prefer the goatse trolls and page wideners and GNAA trolls of old - all of whom could at least be modded down - to blatant click-trolling in the story submissions.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Like others had said, we kill millions of animals every single day in the name of foods, etc. I don't see this as any worse or any better than slaughter houses killing farm animals. Perhaps the only slight difference is these dolphins are in the wild. It is the same as "fishermen" in Canada killing baby seals, "fishermen" in Finland killing whales, etc. What should we do though as a consumer? Vote with your money/pocket! What should we do as a human being? ...
No, this is not clickbait.
Normal, mentally-healthy humans have a lot of empathy - otherwise we're psychopaths. Sure, the amount of empathy varies - mainly as a function of whether the animal in question tends to act human-like. We should embrace this, not cynically write it off - empathy *IS* humanity.
Yes, that also means that anyone who is intelligent and reflective will be uncomfortable with eating meat, concerned how the animal died, and of course what kind of animal it was. This is basically orthogonal to issues of environmental or ecological impact.
How does this matter to a nerd? Will it affect the release of a stable btrfs?
Definition of murder is killing another of the same species. Since dolphins are not human, it's not murder if a human does it.
Summary didn't say whether bottlenose dolphins are rare or endangered. If they are, they should be protected from fishermen. Otherwise I don't see a problem with harvesting a small percentage for their meat.
"200 yummy dolphins await being turned into delicious food"
Although the hunting of dolphins is widely condemned in the west, Japanese defend the practice as a local custom ...
You know, back in the 1940s, it was local US custom to intern Japanese Americans. Apparently, we don't do that any more...
... and say it is no different to the slaughter of other animals for meat.
Some would argue that killing dolphins (and whales) is more akin to killing humans [ or at least chimps - or Republicans (kidding, Kidding - geesh) ] than other animals killed for their meat, due to their high intelligence. For example, Dolphins don't build nuclear reactors in earthquake and/or tsunami zones.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Have your towel with you? Those will say so long, would not thank for anything, and won't be around the next time you need them.
Not a biased piece at all. Never would have thought so with ''slaughter'' in the headline /s
Without commenting on the bias, what word should they use? (I'm assuming that's /sarcasm at the end there)
The dolphins will be killed for meat. The word for killing animals for food is "slaughter". In fact, using that word makes it very clear that they are just animals: the reason it's a strong word when used about human violence is that its meaning then becomes "killed like mere animals".
Dolphins aren’t as special as you think
Their intelligence, like all intelligence, is a complex matter, but basically, they are not as smart as their reputation suggests; although, stating that they are as smart (dumb) as chickens also overstates things.
This is NOT tech news.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Please never compare slavery and eating meat. As a black male, I find that repulsive and hyperbolic.
Japanese scientists still trying to assess whether every sea creature can be turned into sashimi.
Vegetarianism is about the minimization of cruelty and suffering.
Plant life does not factor into it because they can not suffer. They can’t suffer because they have no nervous system with which to think. They also have no physical mechanisms with which to feel pain. And even if they did, they have no thoughts, so the pain would mean nothing. They have no fear, panic, or sadness. They live, but they live without consciousness. So you can not torture a plant or make it suffer.
On the animal spectrum, not all animals are the same since some animals have small brains and simple thoughts and other animals have complex brains and complex thoughts. At the top of the animal spectrum you have humans with the most complex brains and abstract thoughts and intense sensations of fear. Humans have a high capacity to suffer. On the other end of the spectrum you have animals like spiders with comparatively simple nervous systems and simple thoughts. They have a much smaller capacity to suffer. That’s why it would feel more painful to watch someone rip the legs off a spider than watch someone rip the legs off a cat or horse or chimpanzee. So there’s a spectrum of animals ordered by how self-aware they are and how complex their thinking is: spiders, fish, chickens, ravens, octopus, cats, dogs, pigs, cows, horses, dolphins, gorillas, chimpanzees, humans... roughly something like that. Everyone draws a line on the spectrum, whether consciously or unconsciously, what they are comfortable with. Some people are fine eating fish and chicken, but not pigs and cows. Other people are fine eating pigs and cows, but not chimpanzees, who are almost human. Some people are even fine eating chimpanzees and feel no empathy when they shout and panic. Almost everyone at least agrees that it’s not ok to eat humans. But some people even do that. A vegetarian draws the line at it being not ok to eat any animal.
Some people argue that oysters, despite being animals, are vegetarian. They aren’t, by definition of the word vegetarian, but it is true that the argument for plants applies to oysters. Oysters do not have a central nervous system, no consciousness, and no thoughts. So they can not suffer.
Not all vegetarians are vegetarian for the same reasons. Some people have a spiritual belief that all life is sacred and equal, but that’s not my belief and not something that’s supported by any facts I’ve seen. What I outlined above, though, is simple fact and simple reasoning.
Perhaps we should be able to use mod points on stories so that way the political discussion pieces like this can be modded down and away.
"200 mercury powered dolphins about to launch a devastating suicide poison attack on unsuspecting pig-like human hybrids"
(I apologise to porcines everywhere for that joke)
Three things:
1. All of your examples included humans, this story isn't about humans. It's about dolphins. (Also, how is this Tech news at all?)
2. Even if our morals do change to include all animals in the category of "no eating", that time is not now. If people look back in horror at this, so what? I'm not them, they're not me.
3. Kind of related to #2: Animals will continue eating other animals (and I would like to point out that none of your examples occur to the general animal populace either, strange disconnect). That's not suddenly going to change even if human's morals do. So does that mean that the other animals are less moral than humans?
Also, meat is just so damn tasty. Who would want to give that up?
Yeah that's not true, there's quite a campaign going for sharks. Gordon Ramsay is one name that comes to mind who has actually done work on it.
The same could be said of humans.
What other word would you have them use?
I agree, "slaughter" should not have been used in the headline. Considering the intelligence of dolphins compared to cows, pigs, chickens, or fish, "murder" or "massacre" would have been more appropriate terms.
Euthanized is the preferred word for many people, even though it's not really euthanizing. Including me, I've said I was euthanizing lab animals when actually I was just slaughtering them.
Actually, slaughter is still probably sugar coating it, since I hope most slaughterhouses are more experienced and efficient at it than I was/am...
(note to any crazy animal rights activists, I'm not talking about dolphins or any other mammal here.)
let us not forget that one time dolphins were trained to assassinate the president of the united states. and they would have succeeded too, if it werent for the meddling of human interlopers.
see here for a documentary film about these terrorists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Dolphin
I guess we can't infringe on tradition, especially if there's money involved. Better go tell those plantation owners they can have their slaves back.
In one hundred years we'll look back at the practice of eating meat with the same horror that we look upon slavery now.
If not because of the ethics at least because of the greenhouse effects which will still be around.
At least if that vegan restaurant's ads are to be believed. Which I'm kind of skeptical of, though that might just be me wanting to not feel bad about all the cheeseburgers I eat.
In one hundred years we'll look back at the practice of eating meat with the same horror that we look upon slavery now.
In one hundred years, 99.999% of meat will come from vats.
Put LASERS on them and then it should be an article for this site. But otherwise anyone for Lunch?
You can't spell Slaughter without Laughter.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
In one hundred years we'll look back at the practice of eating meat with the same horror that we look upon slavery now.
In one hundred years, we'll look back at the practice of eating natural meat with horror. Would you have a problem with lab-grown meat?
Everything is better with chainsaws.
Slaughter implies butchering and the headline makes it sound as if the animals were to be butchered in the cove.... Slaughtering in the cove sounds unsanitary.
I suppose I don't know how sanitary it is, but they really do perform the slaughter right there in the cove.
eg:
http://digitaljournal.com/image/102641
http://unleashed.org.au/images/blogs/The-cove.jpg
That sort of escalated rather quickly.
Why is it that some people seem to care more about the death of 200 dolphins than the death of 200,000 Syrians?
Hugh Dot Pickens needs a timeout.
Not only that, but near as I can tell, the slaughtering began yesterday (hence all of the blood in the water in the CNN video), so at this point most of the media coverage is just impotent grandstanding on the part of talking heads looking for a good story that will give them the high ground. The fact is, if this stuff actually mattered to those people, they'd have been engaging in calls to action days or weeks ago, rather than now. And these are the same people that won't say or do anything else about this annual event until it's happening again next year and they have literal blood in the water that they can show outrage over.
Mind you, I'm not suggesting that everyone showing outrage now fits into that characterization. By no means! There are plenty of comments from other Slashdotters with valid reasons for outrage who may have been unaware of these issues up until now. Rather, I'm constraining my comment to the media's talking heads that like to rile people up.
As for me, I don't see the problem either, but I can understand where some others are coming from.
That's exactly how the Recent page works.
Why do you think the mascot for all endangered animals is the panda? It's cute.
It's the logo for one particular charity. The World Wide Fund for Nature. And here's why:
"The Giant Panda mascot of WWF originated from a panda named Chi Chi that was transferred from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in the same year of the establishment of WWF. As the only giant panda residing in the Western world at that time, along with its physical features and status as an endangered species, panda is seen to serve the need of a strong recognizable symbol of the organization. Moreover, the organization also needs an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing."
It's also cute. But you're assuming that's the primary or perhaps sole reason. And that it's the universal mascot. It's neither.
It was an interesting movie that's for sure. It was amazing the lengths they had to go through to get everything on film.
The Cove
Perhaps Dolphins find it repulsive and hyperbolic in the other direction.
Now what does your gender have to do with anything? Are you implying superiority over the other gender?
And if the dolphin is sentient, as seems to be the case, then what? What standard do we apply when we have a creature with intelligence approaching that of a member of H. sapiens (not equal to, at least so far as we can tell, but certainly approaching)?
This isn't a question of killing endangered species, but a question of what line as regards sentience and intelligence do we draw in what we can wantonly kill; whether it's for food, pleasure or otherwise. It is a serious ethical question, and one that has up until recently mainly been asked of our closest relatives; the great apes (of which we just happen to be a short-haired variety). But as evidence grows that at least some other animals; the Cetaceans, elephants, the apes (and in particular our fellow hominoids, share at least some of the cognitive features that we tend to associate with sentience and intelligence, I think we have to start asking whether the mass killings of these animals constitutes a form of murder.
Yes, I know it's very complex, and drawing that line is never going to satisfy everyone, but I think any reasonable analysis of dolphin behaviors suggest that whatever the line is, they sit on our side of it.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Judge for yourself. Here's the 'slaughter' scene from the documentary ("The Cove") made about this ancient practice. They had to sneak in cameras disguised as rocks because the local authorities were all over them 24/7,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7IINM5qOQs
I suggest you read into the work of Dr Cleve Backster
He's a scientist who started out as a CIA polygraph expert, and he decided one day, "what would happen if I took my polygraph and hooked it up to the leaf of this plant?". Well, he was very surprised, because, unlike smooth, unchanging wavelengths, which he thought he would see from the plant, instead he ended up with a shifting dynamic wave, which was more indicative of what you would expect a human being to be like, with the exception that skin, kind of acts as a dampening agent to the electrical current. But the plant has a very active dynamic electrical current.
Well, then he said, "This plant is acting so much like a human being, what if I ran the plant through stress, similar to how you do a human on the lie detector?" The whole purpose of the lie detection is, you want to get this person into the moment, when you say, "Did you fire the shot who killed so and so?" And the person has a shock, and they're not happy, they're not enthusiastic about your question. So, so they end up saying, "no of course I didn't kill him", and then the graph goes crazy!
So he says, "How do I shock a plant"? He tried dipping one of the leaves in his coffee. That didn't work. He tried a variety of little things like that, when he got the idea in his mind, without actually even doing it, but he just got the idea, of going and taking a match, lighting the match, striking it, then holding it to one of the leaves and burning the leaf.
The plant had an enormous reaction, and in fact did not stop until after he had actually gone and done it, burnt the leaf, and then taken the matches out of the room again. Only once the threat was gone, and he was out of the room, did the plant finally calm down.
So yes, plants just like human beings suffer and go through stress. It's not a good argument to use for "cruelty and suffering"
The Japanese consider dolphin meat to be a delicacy and serve it in their high priced restaurants. See if any of those restaurants are used to cater/host sales conferences or other such bashes of Japanese brand names. Then just publicize the info. Headlines like "Tonda Corp or Hoyota Motors hosts its sales kick off conference with dolphin meat serving restaurant" in US Market will have some salutary effect. If big name players stop supporting restaurants serving marine mammal meat the market will be greatly diminished. Hopefully.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Not if they're used for food, materials, etc. As long as nothing goes to waste, I don't see a problem with it.
There have been many cultures where it was considered acceptable to eat other humans. Some would even massacre/slaughter villages and eat the spoils. Would that still be okay today, as long as nothing goes to waste?
They taste like human. Pretty good--you should try it.
People have short attention spans, so you want to produce the story when it's most graphic.
Let's extend your logic. Let's imagine we met some intelligent alien race when and if we ever go to the stars. Now, maybe they're not quite as intelligent as us. Maybe they're still in the neolithic. What you're saying is that it would be perfectly fine for us to kill them because they don't have the benefit of being a member of H. sapiens. Does that sum things up?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
You can't spell slaughter without laughter.
Slaughtering is the killing. Butchering is the carving up into discreet parts.
Just because the slaughter at the cove, doesn't mean they butcher it there. Generally speaking, the sanitary conditions for slaughter don't matter much (assuming you aren't packing the carcass with fecal waste) whereas sanitary conditions for butchering are highly important for food safety.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
As a human, it would be murder for me to kill the whalers. But, if I were to give weapons to the dolphins and if they could figure out how to use them... Well, you can't really fault me for what happens, can you?* And of course, the dolphins can't be blamed for acting in self defense.
*I know that would never stand up in court. Law is more about majority opinion than logic.
And if the dolphin is sentient, as seems to be the case, then what?
[citation needed]
And, by that, I mean actual science, not 'look at the pretty dolphin!' hippy crap.
1 - It's not just about dolphins. It's about human treatment of dolphins.
2 - That's your prerogative. Personally if I lived in the revolutionary war period I'd prefer it if my legacy was on the abolitionist side.
3 - The question of "morality" in other life forms is irrelevant. Morality is a human trait.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
In one hundred years we'll look back at the practice of eating meat with the same horror that we look upon slavery now.
Spoken like someone who doesn't know the taste of a truly nice piece of meat.
I became vegetarian two years ago. I'm 38. Chances are I've eaten more meat in my lifetime than you have.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
In one hundred years we'll look back at the practice of eating meat with the same horror that we look upon slavery now.
In one hundred years, we'll look back at the practice of eating natural meat with horror. Would you have a problem with lab-grown meat?
I would have no problem with lab grown meat as long as it's safe and healthy. As long as a living animal didn't have to suffer and die, that's fine by me.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Nice try, AC, but as you know China is still going through their own industrial revolution. We got the working conditions thing sorted out in the west a long time ago, and we're not going back to Dickensian working conditions despite the best efforts of some people.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Black slaves weren't bred for food, and weren't slaughtered on industrial production lines.
Slavery was an institution that many people thought was sacrosanct and was so entwined into all aspects of society that it was unthinkable that it would ever be abolished. But a more evolved sense of morality prevailed. My comparison is entirely valid.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
How about the mirror test, which bottlenose dolphins are among a very select group of animals that are capable of passing it.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I'm pretty sure they figured out the answer to that a LONG time ago...
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
Over 9 billion chickens and 115 million pigs are slaughtered every year in the US.
Hopefully not from the vats in Mariposa run by Richard Grey; those vats are tainted.
He just wants to get the numbers up so he can serve it in his restaurants.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
While the liberals tend to live in a fantasy world where nature is paradise and every animal yearns to live free.
Is it okay to eat your straw man?
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Animals are an inherently inefficient means of getting energy into the human body. Eating meat is also much more prone to health problems, obesity being the most pressing.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
As many other users have mentioned, the line that you draw to decide what you will and will not kill/eat is pretty much arbitrary.
I am in their camp. I don't understand why this is news, or why it was written in such a way as to paint the Japanese Fisherman as evil. Again, as other users have mentioned, we eat pigs, which is considered intelligent as well (albeit not as intelligent as Dolphins).
What is going to have every nutrient and vitamin you need to survive? Other mammals, like you. Obviously torturing them for no reason would be inhumane, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Eat them. But try not to make them suffer without reason. That's my thinking anyway.
Galactic News Network reports that more than 7 billions hairless apes remain quarantined in a solar system by the Virgo Galactic Cluster sustenance maintainers, many of them stressed and bloodied from their attempts to survive with only primitive technology before the great harvest. Until now, the sustenanceers have focused on selecting creatures to be experimented on sexually for educational entertainment as twenty-five earthlings, including rare cattle genitalia, were taken on Pulseday 'to a lifetime of expermentation,' and another 12 on Synchday. 'Many of the 7 billion+ Hairless apes who are still trapped in their gravity well are visibly bloody and distressed from their primitive plight in ignorance of their ultimate demise,' one overseer says. Although the consumption of sentient forms is widely condemned among the Machine-hive systems, Sustananceers defend the practice as an organic imperative and right of the technologically advanced -- and say it is no different to the harvest of lower complexity photosynthesizing life. Harvesters of the Milky Way Suburbs, where Earth is located, condemns the criticism as biased and unfair to the organics who, unlike their circuit bound comrades, crave the visceral slaughter. 'The Earth ape harvest is a continuation of legitimate feeding practice in accordance with the technical dominance hierarchy under the jurisdiction of both Virgonian Super Cluster and its suburbs. Therefore, we believe there are no reasons to criticize the upcoming Thrice Fried Earther Feast.' Meanwhile the Society for Diverse Sentience describes how 40 to 60 suburbian slaughterers use Quantum Politics to divide up the planet, whose initial inhabitants peacefully coexisted. 'They tighten up the budgets to bring each sub-group together then the vote will push them toward the booth. Inside the booth in the shadows is where trainers work with harvesters to select the "tastiest" gray matter which have the most nuanced flavor and crisp texture,' the sustenanceer says. The harvester fleet will 'vaporize the most "undesirable" apes (those with partisan tendencies) within the booths to hide from the others what terror awaits when the time comes.
They keep having to check the algorithms and rerun the data on Godzilla, though...
Your logic is flawed. You say an animal is an animal, and there's no difference between slaughtering a dolphin and a fish.
There's a world of difference in breeding rates. Dolphins don't breed quickly. Gestation takes longer than it does for humans.
These fishermen are idiots. They think they can kill all the dolphins they can catch, and nature will make more.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
I can think of another mammalian species that isn't anywhere close to being endangered. Best thing is, they already have basically every nutrient we would need in them, since they've been eating the exact same diet!
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
Should be the status of the fishermen. Just before they are tossed in the water to fend for themselves with ( no longer restrained ) dolphins.
Of course, knowing dolphins and how caring they are, they would most likely rescue the bastards.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
wow, just wow, i feel bad for the people you're associated with.
So long and thanks for all the..... GURGLE
"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
This rhetorical device - that it's ok to do x because x is natural - is called an "Appeal to Nature". At base, it argues that because something's natural, it's good. You can use it to justify all sorts of things - rape, murder, sticking your dick into anything that moves - all manner of things. One of the nice things about being human is that we're now in a position to choose whether or not to live by following our natural desires. And in many cases, we've chosen not to - we sanction against rape, murder etc, and many, many cultures, we eschew eating meat. So the argument really isn't whether we should eat meat because it's "natural" to do so, but rather, given we don't really need to, should we eat meat. "we should eat meat because it's 'natural' to" isn't really much of an argument.
Why do some people seem to care more about the death of 200,000 Syrians than the death of 500,000 Iraqis? It's a crap argument - you're saying that because people have picked issue A as being worthy of their support over (or perhaps even as well as) issue B, and Issue B is in your view more important than issue A, that caring about issue A is somehow insupportable.
This is the equivelant of people in the United States hunting and killing wolves. Wolves are intelligent, social and organize in the same ways as dolphins. Wolves, and dolphins, are also both tool users and both have language and use names. I would suggest that the USA, and other countries, look to their own sandboxes and stop the practice of killing wolves.
FYI: I'm a rancher. I have wolves that are coworkers on our farm and I deal with their wild brethren without having to resort to killing. I'm not liberal or a tree hugger so get more creative when replying.
In this line up Pigs are easier to raise, harvest and produce a more desirable product.
Chimps at least are not toxic to eat, they are just rare in most parts of the world and are really hard to breed in captivity...Dolphins, while not rare, are laced with dangerous levels of mercury due to their place in the ocean food chain and they are harder to breed.
sorry pigs, try being cuter...pork is really tasty and i don't even eat meat; even i would admit bacon/ham is pretty great....dolphin not so much.
Cattle and pigs are slaughtered with regularity because they are easy to herd & domesticate, and they put on weight rapidly eating things we regard as inedible: grass and even our garbage.
Dogs and horses provide valuable services to their human partners in the form of security and transportation. They are typically more valuable alive.
Even the house cat plays an important role in the eradication of disease-ridden household vermin. Unlike mice, you CAN train a cat to shit in just one place.
Domestication by the hairless apes is not for the weak of heart. It's not the cute nor the smart that get spared. Just the useful.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
It depends on what you base your ethics around. You have options. 1) There is a universal right/wrong dictated by God. 2) What is good for humanity as a whole is right. 3) What is good for me personally is right. 4) What is good for intelligent life is right. 5) What is natural is right. 6) What feels good is right. 7)Nothing is right/wrong
If you don't decide what your ethics are based on then how can you decide what is logical???? If you believe #2 then killing dolphins is ok. If you believe #1 then you should check scripture about your diet. If you believe #4 then you need to create a line somewhere. Maybe dolphins is that line.
Agriculture, specifically intensive farming is of course greater impact then this. That is true. So in that sense why bother with this?
Here's why. Its not good for our well being. If we treat animals with brutality then is it no surprise that our enemy in war shows no mercy?
With farming the whole thing is hidden from us from birth to packet. That doesn't make it OK but it does reduce the damage to us.
But critically it can be argued that WE are semi aquatic marine mammal and these animals are close relatives since we moved out of the sea... Taking in the psychology are they closer to us than apes - our fat distribution matches theirs not an apes. We have the dive reflex.
You can say dolphins are cute but isn't that for a reason? A conversation with a dolphin is easier than a cow. Our ease of compassion is due to them being similar to ourselves.
Really its best to observe the ratio of canines vs masticating teeth under your nose - eat meat appropriately - sometimes, not all the time.
A blog I run for the wealth
"200 yummy dolphins eagerly await being turned into delicious food, to the point of injuring themselves in their excitement"
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
And people are perplexed when I tell them I'm a misanthrope.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I think "holocaust" would be a more neutral, less emotionally-charged term.
Unlike domestic cows, and chickens, the dolphins suffer a long, and painful, death. According to what I saw on that movie "The Cove" (2009).
Also, according an episode of "Whale Wars" some harpooned whales took as long as 20 minutes to die.
Cows, and chickens, never know what the hit them, whereas trapped dolphins are confused, and terrified, and die horribly.
They may not have written history, but they certainly pass skills on from generation to generation.
They could hunt people if they wanted. But other than the occasional long imprisoned orca that goes mad and drowns a captor, they much prefer to make friends.
I really loath to say this - but as a Human Being I need to say that the dolphins are more civilized than the human beings who stay in Japan !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
http://deepseanews.com/2013/02... Nuff said, karma's a bitch.
You could start by dropping the "S"
Actually yes, there has been a massive global campaign against shark finning over the years (the practice of catching them, cutting off their fins, and throwing them back in finless to die) and has had great success in places like Europe.
Then send a letter to the Japanese Embasy/Consulate in your locale to voice your objection, your reaction (to Boycott Japanese goods) and what is necessary (legal protection of intelligent and endaged species like Whales and Dolphins) to resume buying Japanese products..
http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/
Slashdot, now a wholly owned subsidiary of greenpeace.org.
The very least they could of done is photoshop in some friggin lasers. Is that really too much to ask?
sigs are hazardous to your health
Dolphins and chimps are quite intelligent, I will give you that. But I would place parrots (look up the New Zealand Kea on youtube), corvids (crows, ravens, etc), octopuses, whales, and elephants before pigs.
I'm surprised that the AMAZING capuchin monkey is ignored (FAR smarter than chimp, in my experience, just not used in research as often as they should).
Personally, in South America I've seen them solving problems (like learning themselves COMING FROM THE WILD several yards far from the office, to operate a coffee machine and getting a cup of coffe in an office where the manager allowed them in, or entering a place and looking for magazines, imitating the human behavior) WITHOUT HUMAN TRAINING.
Behavior like this, but without formal training to do so (like happened with the chimps when doing tricks), just by watching and learning.
Please check videos like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
"We only want to save the cute animals, don't we" Dennis Leary
Your policies suck, seriously. In the past ten years, you have killed endangered species under the guise of "whale research," NUKED the Pacific Rim's oceans, air, and land, something people here in the Pacific Northwest should be very nervous about, and now we find out you are killing intelligent species because it is "tradition." Isn't time you rethink everything?
Agrisea Tsunami - Epyc Servers... https://agrisea.net/products
Instead of wasting time slaughtering dolphins, Japanese should stop slacking and get to the real work - slaughtering the Sea Shepherd members and funders. Any Dutchmen here? You can do your part and write to your MP and PM to voice your disagreement with your country's sheltering of Paul Watson.
Troll 2.0 Fear my asocial networking!
It is actually not the meat they are after. Dolphin meat is laden with contaminants and used for pet food mostly.
The actual cash cow are baby dolphins for dolphinaria.
-- 29A the number of the Beast
I am aware of the situation as I do have a few friends there.
The situation is very much the same in countries like Norway or Iceland and very far from what happens in the Faroe islands where they do make a similar slaughter jsut that in this case the whole population of the island (a small island group in the North Atlantic) is involved and they do it for fun (really).
I already commented that the real issue is the trade in dolphin babies for dolphinaria and this is an international trade were the US, Europe and Russia play an important part.
Of course, the resource of racism is an easy one... but I would actually take it with a bit of salt as many times when people say "these fucking Dutch (to use my country) do this and that..." what they actually mean is "this fucking Dutch government" or "this fucking group of Dutch people" and not "ALL the Dutch are this and that", just that it's easier to use. The card of "cultural invasion" is one that is very easily played by some too, exactly what Icelanders and Norse do to legitimize whale hunt (to sell the meat to Japan where it's used as "traditional" canned dog food).
And the this entrenchment on one part makes that other things happen, just read what European fishermen say about the Japanese fishing fleet, while almost nobody complains about ours (the Dutch, one of the most damaging) or the Spanish... and while it is true that the Japanese fleet is the biggest (Spain is second) the main market for fish is Spain (!), yes, you read well, not the USA nor China nor your country, but the EU.
Well, in any case: interesting to read from a Japanese native. I'm now going back to work and to my Jiuta playlist ;)
-- 29A the number of the Beast
South Park said it best: Dolphin and Whale