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User N. Ame
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 222
Location: Kanto
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 Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:40 am Post subject: Japan dolphin slaughter: is this still happening? |
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I want to preface this by saying I support whaling for food purposes, and I'm no supporter of PETA, but this video of a supposed annual dolphin cull in Japan made me slightly sick on a physicial and moral level... I'm wondering if this can be confirmed. I never heard of anything like this happening during my 4 years in Japan:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/olopez/168451 |
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furiousmilksheikali
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1660
Location: In a coffee shop, splitting a 30,000 yen tab with Sekiguchi.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:08 am Post subject: Re: Japan dolphin slaughter: is this still happening? |
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| User N. Ame wrote: |
I want to preface this by saying I support whaling for food purposes, and I'm no supporter of PETA, but this video of a supposed annual dolphin cull in Japan made me slightly sick on a physicial and moral level... I'm wondering if this can be confirmed. I never heard of anything like this happening during my 4 years in Japan:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/olopez/168451 |
You support whaling for food purposes but not killing dolphin for food purposes?
Where do you make the distinction? Whales would appear to be pretty close to having the same intelligence as dolphins (unlike cattle, for example). Proponents of dolphin culling also support it on the grounds of food. Either because the meat is eaten or because dolphins are competitors for other fishstock that the Japanese eat.
Here is an article on it which is only a couple of years old and which contains a few photos that may be disturbing to some:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?fe20051130a1.htm |
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User N. Ame
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 222
Location: Kanto
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:26 am Post subject: Re: Japan dolphin slaughter: is this still happening? |
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| furiousmilksheikali wrote: |
| User N. Ame wrote: |
I want to preface this by saying I support whaling for food purposes, and I'm no supporter of PETA, but this video of a supposed annual dolphin cull in Japan made me slightly sick on a physicial and moral level... I'm wondering if this can be confirmed. I never heard of anything like this happening during my 4 years in Japan:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/olopez/168451 |
You support whaling for food purposes but not killing dolphin for food purposes? |
That's right. I support a regulated, limited whale hunt for food, if, and only if, the species numbers allow for such a fishery.
Dolphins: I believe are a protected species, the culling of which is prohibited under international whaling law, no?
Aside from the ecological argument, something about this method of culling is rather odious, and has a moral stench to it. Dragging live dolphins along the road by truck? Slashing them with swords, and leaving the to die a slow miserable death. What's the point of that? Tradition? I don't buy it. Many cultures that have traditionally harvested sea mammals, have revered and respect them, use every last bone for some usefull purpose, taken only what their village needed, and thanked the gods for the privlege. This Japan dolphin cull, as obsecenly exhibited in the video, is much different.
And aside from that, the devious, highly illegal practise of packaging dolphin as "kujira"... the entire enterprise stinks on several levels. And the Japanese government (especially local governments) is complicit.
I'm not sure dolphin meat has such a long and storied history in Japan, as whale does. It seems they are killing dolphins for the black market to fill the void left by the whale shortage in recent decades. And as the JT article suggests, the cull seems to serve as a kind of pest control. |
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DNK
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
Posts: 236
Location: the South
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:16 am Post subject: |
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It's a lot less odious and horrible than factory farming and slaughter in the US, and on a much smaller scale. Hardly a Japanese phenomenon.
Not that I don't share the outrage, but it's muted in the larger context. |
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gonzarelli
Joined: 20 Jun 2007
Posts: 151
Location: trouble in the henhouse
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:45 am Post subject: |
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Still disagree that it's ok to cull whales for food purposes. That's why the Japanese are killing the whales but fluff it up by suggesting it's for science  It's all about the sushi.
Dolphins are getting culled in Japan too. I once heard someone describe the Japanese as '"environmental pirates." I would have to agree. |
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cornishmuppet
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 642
Location: Nagano, Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:55 am Post subject: |
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I've read the article and seen the video before. Until I read this though, I'd got the impression it was pretty old, figuring I'd have heard more about it. The whole secrecy thing does seem to scream guilt.
Regardless of the rights or wrongs of it, the whole 'its the Japanese way of doing things' arguement does get a little tiresome sometimes. |
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User N. Ame
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 222
Location: Kanto
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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| DNK wrote: |
| It's a lot less odious and horrible than factory farming and slaughter in the US, and on a much smaller scale. Hardly a Japanese phenomenon. |
I think this goes without saying, assuming most enlightened people of the world know where their meat comes from and how it's produced. And true enough, Westerners watching this Japanese video and expressing outrage whilst chomping on their hotdog or hamburger does have a rather blatant tinge of hypocrisy. But it wasn't my intent to open up the animal rights debate, only to show one small example of a big atrocity that deserves to be shown.
As someone else remarked, I too get tired of the how dare you criticize, it's Japanese custom line. |
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furiousmilksheikali
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1660
Location: In a coffee shop, splitting a 30,000 yen tab with Sekiguchi.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| User N. Ame wrote: |
| DNK wrote: |
| It's a lot less odious and horrible than factory farming and slaughter in the US, and on a much smaller scale. Hardly a Japanese phenomenon. |
I think this goes without saying, assuming most enlightened people of the world know where their meat comes from and how it's produced. |
I don't think so. I care more about a dolphin than I do a chicken. |
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codedals
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Posts: 37
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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We could argue all day about the ethics of eating the (as far as we know) less aware animals.
But whether you're a stark carnivore, ovo-lacto vegetarian, or a wild-eyed vegan-- eating dolphin is wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_intelligence
It's sad that such animals are valued for the flesh as opposed to their mind.
(Haha, I think I heard a young lady say something akin to that before...) |
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shuize
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1270
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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| :Shrug: I'm sure dolphins would eat us if they could. It's not my fault they spent all their evolutionary efforts making sound bounce out of their foreheads when they should have been working on stronger tails or sharper teeth. |
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markle
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 1316
Location: Out of Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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... eating dolphin is wrong...
... I care more about a dolphin than I do a chicken...
... yada yada yada ...
Oh please, How many of you are animal behavouralists with a PhD in dolphin studies? I mean unless you hadn't been told by scientists that dolphins were intelligent and what not, you'd just think of them as big fish. Instead you get carried away when you see Flipper in the seafood section. Irony is that if it wasn't for humans wanting to see Willy and company do a backflip and play with a ball we would have no idea of how intelligent they were. People are happy to have dolphins kept in artificial tanks and perform meaningless tricks but eat one !?! OH THE HUMANITY.
So long thanks for all the fish. |
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furiousmilksheikali
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1660
Location: In a coffee shop, splitting a 30,000 yen tab with Sekiguchi.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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| markle wrote: |
| Oh please, How many of you are animal behavouralists with a PhD in dolphin studies? I mean unless you hadn't been told by scientists that dolphins were intelligent and what not, you'd just think of them as big fish. |
I suppose you would have come up with evolution, the Big Bang and heliocentric orbits by yourself if it hadn't been for some "scientists", right markle? Because you're at least as intelligent as a human. Or maybe as intelligent as a chicken, who knows which is brainier, eh markle?
I'm not an animal behaviourist and I don't have a PhD in animal studies but I'm not a flat-Earther either. |
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codedals
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Posts: 37
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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| furiousmilksheikali wrote: |
I'm not an animal behaviourist and I don't have a PhD in animal studies but I'm not a flat-Earther either. |
Well said, furious!!!
Wow, Markle, you seem quite dependent on people feeding you information in order to reach a conclusion. I guess it's not dolphin intelligence we should be questioning... |
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User N. Ame
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 222
Location: Kanto
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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| furiousmilksheikali wrote: |
| I'm not an animal behaviourist and I don't have a PhD in animal studies but I'm not a flat-Earther either. |
Are by chance Christopher Hitchens? That photo combined with your wry, tobbaco-influenced wit.... |
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DNK
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
Posts: 236
Location: the South
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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My point is that although this is terrible, a life of freedom and 6 minutes of agony is far nicer than a life of captivity, neglect, mutilation, and a much longer death agony in many cases. It does deserve to be pointed out, but why is this the only real form of animal brutality that ever gets a reaction out of people (this isn't the only place I've seen it)?
Pigs are usually considered to be right under dolphins in intelligence, but they're ugly and grunt a lot and can't do tricks so no one cares. Anything like this with pigs would just be another PETA video, bunch of extremists, blah blah blah... where's my bacon?!
What do dolphins taste like? Other than mercury, that is.
On that note, what does mercury taste like? |
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