Why save dolphins?

I love dolphins as much as the next guy, but I really don’t see why they deserve the special attention that the feel-good self-proclaimed activists like to give them.

Dolphin Attack!
Red Alert 2 nostalgia

I am sure you have all heard of Hayden Panettiere‘s (Claire Bennett in Heroes) recent involvement in an attempt to disrupt a dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama. After failing to save the cute cuddly tuna-killers, Hayden and her friends drove their way to Osaka International Airport and fled the country before the ink on their arrest warrants dries.

Apparently, “risking” their lives (because we all know that Japanese fishing trawlers are heavily armed) is deemed a worthy sacrifice, but getting arrested for their expressed beliefs is a big no-no. What dedicated convictions! Mahatma Ghandi would’ve been so proud.

Before we go on any further, please be warned that some of the images that accompany this article may be graphic in nature.

Quoting a MSNBC report where Hayden responds to an arrest warrant issued for her in Japan.

“Obviously this issue has generated defensive behavior on the part of both the Japanese Authorities and Fishermen,” she said in the statement. “I have grown up hearing – and adhering to – this phrase: ‘condemnation without investigation dooms one to everlasting ignorance.’

“We must unite as a world to solve our increasing international environmental crises,” her statement continued. “We can no longer hide (behind) out-dated, senseless cultural traditions and lazy, bad habits that are resulting in the annihilation of our planet’s resources and the extinction of our species.

Overlooking the fact that the phrase which she claims to adhere to is completely irrelevant to the situation at hand (i.e. her breaking of Japanese laws), her statement is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with our media today.

The End
“Dolphin killing? We are doomed I tell you!”

Annihilation of our planet’s resources? Environmental crisis? Extinction of our species? Wow, I guess that must mean The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was right after all! I never knew dolphins were that important!

This kind of celebrity activism actively discredits authentic efforts to combat real and significant issues that plague our environment today. Genuine environmentalists are forced into the same group as nut cases like Ms. Panettiere’s good friends and Greenpeace.

These people claim to be “raising awareness” for a good cause, but all they are doing is to encourage regular people to associate environmental protection with crazy hippies. Such a negative association is a serious detriment to the efforts of scientists and entrepreneurs who are actually making a difference in improving our world with real concrete efforts instead of incessant whining.

I doubt that reading about Rainbow Warrior‘s latest escapades actually causes people to change their consumption habits in the slightest bit or reconsider their next SUV purchase. All it does is to give lunatics like Greenpeace bragging rights among the tree-hugging extremists.

Hippie
Would you do what this guy tells you to?

If someone was serious about saving the environment, he would do best to stay as far away from these people as possible, or risk losing all credibility in the eyes of sane, reasonable people. Al Gore is a good example of a sane person who has done things infinitely more practical and beneficial than picketing a chemical factory.

Before this post gets too tangential, let’s return to dolphins. I see two general flows of argument behind those who think Ms. Panettiere’s actions actually deserve our applause.

The first is that dolphins are supposedly an endangered species (as they have been portrayed by the media for the past millennium or so) and therefore deserve protection from being eaten.

But the truth is that, as noted by James of Japan Probe, none of the variants of dolphins being hunted in Taiji are actually endangered. Moreover, there is already a quota for drive hunting set in place by the central government and hunts like this have been carried out for centuries. So let’s get it straight, the dolphins in Taiji are in no danger of becoming extinct.

Conservation of an endangered species is a valid cause that I can agree with, but the fact is that these dolphins are simply not endangered.

Dead dolphins
Poor dolphins…

Secondly, people argue that dolphins are sentient creatures that deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. I would like to agree with that in principle, except that I eat beef and I really don’t think that cows are brainless either. I’m pretty sure a machete slash feels just as painful to a cow as compared to a dolphin. The slaughtering of dolphins, while admittedly cruel, is no different from that of cows and other similar-sized mammals. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way in hell that I’m going to become a vegetarian.

Dead chickens
Poor McChickens…

Dead cow
Poor Big Mac…

Dead gazelle
Poor gazelle… Damn lions.

It’s regrettable that animals have to die to satisfy my taste buds. I’m sure one day we will all be eating some kind of mysterious meat grown in bio-vats thanks to the miracles of science. But until then, animals will just have to bear with it. I think that we can all accept this non-ideal reality.

So why should dolphins be any different? Why is it acceptable practice to kill cows? Is it because cows are less intelligent? (Shall we start killing stupid people for soylent green?) Or is it because cows are bred to die? (What an awful moral justification.)

If we are talking about net suffering, I think cows have it way worse than dolphins, and yet the poor bovinae often fall under the radars of teenage celebrities trying to fit in with the chocolate rainbow feel-good crowd.

An interview with Hayden Panettiere following the incident:

Dolphins are like “teddy bears in the water” (01:09), eh? I pity the cows for not being cute enough to garner the same attention. Perhaps they ought to consider hiring an image consultant and maybe work on a family movie or two with Walt Disney.

I do agree with Ms. Panettiere that “condemnation without investigation dooms one to everlasting ignorance” is an excellent doctrine. Therefore, I encourage her to conduct some investigation next time and find a real issue to use her celebrity influences on. Real issues such as America’s irrational love for SUVs and its asinine standards of automobile fuel efficiency. You know, things that are actually contributing to the annihilation of our planet and not just some feel-good fluff.

But I guess real issues that deserve serious attention seldom involve cute teddy bears. Aww… :(

That said, I don’t think eating dolphin is such a great idea either: mercury pollution is another genuine problem for Ms. Panettiere to consider tackling.

Well, I guess now people are going to accuse me of being an asshole. I really do love dolphins, though. I used to train tons of them in Red Alert 2 because their echo attacks are totally overpowered. :P

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71 Responses to Why save dolphins?

  1. lorddesis says:

    But I suppose Dolphins are the cutest endangered animals available for use as a mascot for the animal conservation groups. People are less likely to support something that has a gorilla on its logo.

  2. Nekonron says:

    There goes my double cheeseburger I just ordered :( I can’t eat it anymore *sigh*

    It’s probably just the differences in culture and perception. We’re not used of hearing about dolphins being slaughtered, or even eaten for that matter. To most, dolphins are cute, intelligent creatures.

  3. DarkMirage says:

    Indeed. Then again, you don’t hear about Hindu bovine rights activists terrorizing our slaughterhouses.

  4. anonymous says:

    i…
    LOL-ed

  5. !Loke says:

    Maybe that`s life
    Thing get more priorities when they are getting lesser

  6. l-lawliet says:

    Humans are selfish. This is an undeniable fact.
    All this please save the dolphins thing is just one huge irony.

    Its like shouting “so cute” after looking at the puppies on animal planet but the next moment when your parents call, you decided to have chicken rice for lunch.

  7. Vladeshi says:

    I am now tempted to go find myself a dolphin burger.
    And eat it in front of a Green Peace outpost.

  8. Azu says:

    One thing that struck my mind when you talk about cows and dolphins is that how the food chain relates to this – we eat chicken and cows because they’re primary food sources for us alpha predators. Dolphins are predators for tuna, another food source. We need to eat to survive, so we need as many food as we could, so we kill other predators that are preying our food source.

    Now I wonder how “extinction of our species” can be prevented by diminishing our food source to other predators…

  9. TP says:

    Unfortunately, people are prone to be impressionable and can be easily swayed under celebrity exposure, so chances are, better causes are left hung, rung and dry because they don’t feature hawt sexy ladies (what is with guys and their eusuchian behaviour? — let’s play animal adjectives! —)

    I, for one, accept scientifically proven, hard facts. People like Ms. Panettiere and Greenpeace are hijacking good causes for ridiculous ones. It’s time for moderate views to be the recurring tone of championing causes.

    Oh, FYI, I thought the Squid owns.

  10. wilson says:

    The cutest endangered animals are the pandas, and they get a lot, A LOT of protection because of the media, because people like seeing cute animals being saved, it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling that something is good in this planet… after that they go on to drive their Hummer because it’s so hard to walk 2 blocks to the McDonalds.

    Greenpeace is stupid. I used to support them, but after a while I started noticing a trend and simply put, they’re media whores. They care more about looking good on TV than actually doing something useful, PETA is no different.

    I guess I’ll do the same with Hayden Panettiere that what I do with John Travolta and other nutjobs. Enjoy their work on tv and ignore the rest.

  11. quendidil says:

    I always played the Reds in Red Alert 2. The damned dolphins were annoyingl; I wished there were a worm in the seas (a la Dune) to eat your stupid little Allied warm-blooded fish.

    Nice, fresh, wild meat is far healthier than your farm-grown, hormone-injected meat anyway. Given a bowl of dolphin sashimi and a hamburger, I’d take the dolphin any day.

    That being, said, dolphins are arguably more intelligent than most land mammals. I wouldn’t think they are sentient as a five year old is though. I personally take the view opposite to utiliarianism. The ability to reason, or the ability to develop reason should take priority over the ability to suffer. Dolphins will not likely develop full-blown sentience within the next 30,000 years and if their population is being controlled responsibly, it will be beneficial for the species in the long run.

    And lol, a family movie (or a dozen) didn’t do much for the porkies. Charlotte’s Web, Babe, Babe 2 didn’t do shit for pork consumption anyway, did it?

    Hayden is a male name. Btw, I take it you don’t watch Heroes? Pity, you could have incorporated a “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World” pun into the article.

  12. DarkMirage says:

    I do watch Heroes. The joke is over-used.

  13. Random_guy says:

    I opposed killing dolphins because they are known to save people from sharks unlike a certain creature I know (I believe that everybody know what they are called)…. They will just stand there and watch as others are being attacked instead of offering help.

    I rather eat a Tiger or a shark(those Carnivores ones) than to kill a Dolphins.

  14. DarkMirage says:

    I hope you realize that dolphins probably kill a lot more living things than sharks, considering it takes more tunas than seals to fill an empty stomach.

    It’s quite silly to apply human morals to animals. Why should a tiger deserve death more than a dolphin? So are you saying that we should stop killing herbivores such as cows?

  15. Yumeka says:

    It’s a pretty obvious fact that people tend to love and want to help the “cute” and “pretty” animals. But it’s the less cute, less pretty ones that truly test a person’s compassion. Loving, or at least respecting, all creatures equally is the right thing I think. Even though I do eat animals (cows, chickens, etc) I know that if I became a vegetarian it wouldn’t stop people from killing these animals for food. So eating them is at least making use of their death. I guess when it comes to the difference between killing dolphins for food and killing cows for food, people (even myself I admit) feel that it’s more wrong to kill dolphins because they’re “wild” creatures who live independently of humans whereas cows, chickens, etc., are domesticated and bred by humans to be their food and wouldn’t survive on their own. So I guess killing dolphins feels more like we’re interfering with nature than with killing domestic animals. But again, all creatures can suffer and there’s no evidence which suggests that cows fear death any less than dolphins. Well to sum it up, if an animals species is in danger of disappearing from the planet completely, then enough can’t be done to protect it. But as for killing the remaining, non-endangered animals for food, I think the less animals that have to suffer to appease people’s appetites the better. I don’t think there’d be much of a problem if people were to stop killing dolphins and other wild animals for food (at least if they live in highly advanced countries like the US and Japan where food is easily available), but for animals like cows and chickens who provide us with so many food sources, we should at least make their deaths as humane as possible.

  16. tj han says:

    Good post. Did you know that Jane Goodall is/was in Singapore for a series of lectures?

    As someone who is actively involved in conservation, I believe in the Shaman King school of thought when it comes to eating animals. Ie, eat those below you in the food chain but remember to say a thank you! Which is why I do not eat sharks or their fins and I always swim in the sea while throwing blood around me.

    DM: Your argument about dolphins filling more is flawed because sharks are cold-blooded and thus required less energy than dolphins, who need more for homeostasis. Correct but wrong explanation.

    It is useles talking to people like random_guy because they are rather hypocritical. He says we can eat him.

  17. Random_guy says:

    Not quite, I believe that we should not kill those animals which are known to save humans. It’s only my belief though.

    By right, we should not make such a big deal about killing dolphins. After all, killing is part of nature, as long as people don’t overkill, it’s alright to kill any animal (except for fellow human beings) for food.

  18. Random_guy says:

    @ tj han:

    All Humans are hypocritical, it’s whether you realise it or not.

  19. tj han says:

    Dolphins known to save humans? You are watching too much Flipper. Seriously. By the way, we should eat cats and dogs. I wonder why doing so is considered cruelty.

    Btw DO NOT EAT PLANTS. THEY SAVE US from the GLOBAL WARMING, SOIL EROSION and contribute much more than dolphins. Save the PLANTS!

  20. Ryuko_Hikaru says:

    It is actually kind of interesting that she is trying very hard to be the next Steve Irwin. True to the fact that dolphins are endangered animals, but shouldn’t have she done her research first?

    Besides, I doubt if she has ever held a puffer fish in between her mouth, let it go, then repeat the process. So it isn’t right of her to speak as though she know if how the dolphins feel. I watched the video and it was like, oh my it is an entire act out to garner the attention she wants, no sense of ingenuity at all.

    Maybe it would be better if somebody feeds her to a giant squid.

    If I am not wrong, dolphins also have blubber, and blubber is used to make cosmetic products. So she should like, use less cosmetics if she wants to support the drive, subsitiute her dressing table equipment with lead powder and belladonna drops.

    I bet she wants to have a set of soft toys named after her, called Panetty Dolphins as what Theodore Roosevelt’s bear had the word Teddy added in front of it.

    > All Humans are hypocritical, it’s whether you realise it or not.

    That is a generalisation and a sweeping statement. xP

  21. chewy says:

    he said animals not plants =p

  22. Ryuko_Hikaru says:

    @ tj han

    So what do we eat? Plankton? Air? Algae?

  23. IKnight says:

    Attack Dogs were my favourite animal in RAII, which is a little odd as I don’t particularly like canines in real life. Perhaps I enjoyed sending them on suicide attacks. Ah . . . good times.

    The involvement of celebrities in causes, often on the ‘lunatic fringe’ end of any give cause, is a tricky one. Nowadays, I’ve noticed an increasing cynicism in the media and among ‘ordinary people’ about celebrity endorsement. It can play a useful role in attracting attention to campaigns which aren’t particularly sexy or media-friendly; however, as this case demonstrates, it does help if the celebrity concerned does some thorough research.

    I’m practically vegetarian myself, but that’s for cost reasons. If someone else’s paying, I usually have something meaty.

  24. tj han says:

    Eat animals duh. Can’t you read English? He (random_guy) said we humans shouldn’t eat things that save us. Since humans are destroying ourselves, we should eat ourselves. But because humans do not possess all the essential macro and micro nutrients, we do need other source of food. Bacteria and Fungi would be good.

  25. Kesenaitsumi says:

    Yeah. I agree to. We Human have to eat to live…Even every animal in this world had already carrying this destine to being eat by stronger animal….Just like a lion eatting a deer…

    The strong survive and the weak become victims…..Just as you said, Before we really can raise some meat in the experiment room we still have to rely on animal meat or fish to supply for our daily Protein needs.

    Killing a chicken is the same as killing a dolphin……Well. I also din’t know what am I’m talking about…But , even if you try to avoid that and become a vegetarian, is that vegetable don’t have their life?….Eatting a vegetable also mean killing their life….

    So. wat is the fuss about….Just make out the quote and avoid overkilling until the species is facing extinction….

  26. manga says:

    The one reason humans hunt dolphins are because the dolphins eat fish that the human wants. There is no other reason.

    Here people hunt wolves because they “take the prey we want to hunt and kill” or “they take our dogs!!” when they are left loose… but the hunters who are out hunting kill their own dogs so I don´t see why wolves should be hunted down…

    The one reason an animal should die is because it´s going to be eaten by the killer. That is the natural way of life. You eat or you get eaten.

    As usual humans have stepped in and created disorder since we take animals that will give of more milk, more meat and breed them to have easy access to the food. But if something else figures this out then the humans get angry, since they lose profit and then they want whatever killed their money dead…

    So why save the dolphins? Killing if you´re not going to eat is wrong. And the commitment that they aren´t an endangered species is kinda lame, keep up the work and it will be in a couple of years… and then it isn´t sure that there will be any male/female dolphins left so they can have children and then once again human have made an entire species extinct…
    Which is really sad in my mind.

    I eat meat and will always do. But that´s the natural way. To kill just so that I can get more money and throw the food away is a really bad reason to hunt.

    Eat what you kill. Otherwise, don´t kill.

  27. DarkMirage says:

    manga, that is great and all…

    Except that in Japan they do eat dolphins. And they have been eating dolphin meat for centuries.

    So, yeah. No one said they were killing dolphins for leisure. :/

  28. Aoi_sora says:

    I think ppl support the ban of killing dolphins just because dolphins are cute and they don’t want to see cute things being *brutally* slaughtered. The same thing goes for dogs and cats. In Korea they slaughter dogs for meat, but then in the US, dogs are considered cute/men’s best friends so they don’t want to see them die. It’s just a matter of different perspective…

    For example, would you like to see a catgirl slaughtered for food? Like hell you would. We protect them because we don’t want them to die. And the reason why we don’t want to see them die? Cuz they are cute. end of story.

    //I don’t think chickens are cute//

  29. 0rion says:

    Dolphin actually tastes pretty dang good. So does horse. I have eaten both in Japan, and they were great.

    Thank goodness for a country with a little common sense.

    “Dolphins are like “teddy bears in the water” (01:09), eh? I pity the cows for not being cute enough to garner the same attention.”

    An animal rights activist I once knew had a bumper sticker that read, “Animals are just little people in fur coats.” Obviously this kind of purely emotional, pity for the animals you care about, and a steak knife for the ones you don’t.

    Also, anybody who says cows aren’t cute hasn’t seen this:

    http://www.riuva.com/?p=810

  30. Nivexus says:

    I completely agree, i can’t see what the big fuss is about killing dolphins. Hayden Panettiere is the epitome of ignorance and lack of common sense. It’s Japanese culture to consume dolphin so this clearly shows her lack of cultural acceptance. She has the same blatant lack of sense that is the same lack of sense that some celebrities who drive hybrid cars have. “If i drive a hybrid car I’m helping to save the environment. That’s BS. It makes no difference if you live out of town because using the highway makes you consume more fuel.
    Furthermore if she’s so worried about the dolphins then what about the cows in India? She’s got no problem killing cows but in most Indian areas this practice is still outlawed due to Hinduism and culture in India. So why doesn’t she either march around the world telling people to stop killing cows or go to India and tell them to start killing more cows?
    I can’t believe people sympathise with her when she can act so stupidly towards what is otherwise a normal occurence. People like to meat, so let them! They weren’t being ‘slaughtered’ any differently to how another fisherman might ‘slaughter’ a million fish or a slaughterhouse might ‘slaughter’ cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and horses. Her reasoning is purely sentimental and has little if any seriousness behind it. Saving dolphins because they are ‘teddy bears in the water’ is the most pathetic attempt at a serious argument to protest.
    Not all things in life are pretty, humans need food to live and unless she can accept that she’ll continue to be a ignorant buffoon. I’ll bet you could feed her a surprise dish of dolphin and she wouldn’t be any the wiser. I wished the fishermen did hit her, then maybe the other half of her brain would activate. And rest assured the dolphins did NOT die in vain, in fact they’ve probably been served at restaurants and cafeterias.

  31. Joel says:

    I guess it’s because cows and chickens are farm animals, so no one should feel guilty for slaughtering them under legalised conditions?

    But TEDDY BEARS? They are from a plush farm too, and imo if a doplin was cuddled like a teddy bear by some Hollywood bimbo, it would be better of dead!

  32. darkdestiny says:

    I totally agree with the picture saying “THE END IS AT HAND”. Even one human can put the Earth on their palm and crush it, let alone letting a single species extinct.

    I’m not talking only about dolphins here, but many species of animals are getting extinct just for food, desire (to hunt and poach animals [let’s own ’em all!]) and money. Not to mention hundreds were already extinct within the millions of years Earth had gone through, from the time humans a.k.a. homo sapiens exist.

    Not to mention genetic changes caused by nature cause the death of one species and the birth of another for much longer.

  33. darkdestiny says:

    How many uses does an animals have? Many, but most of the uses have one common thing, that is to kill them to utilize the “use”. To eat, to make into clothing, to use as… blah blah blah…

    Thus, the reasons and excuses to kill animals are aplenty, such that they can fill half of the boundless ocean of the Earth, or maybe more.

  34. panzer magier says:

    I agree with the article. What Panettiere did may have been a (questionably) good cause, but for the wrong reasons. Like how only gorgeously popular men get all the chicks, only the cuddly creatures get the media attention. Next time she wants to “raise awareness”, she should DRIVE down to her local McDonald chain store and order a few macs for take-out.
    And the whole “human morality” is just a load of crap. We can put as many dogs “to sleep” as we like, but help your dying grandmother unplug her life support and you are condemned a murderer for life. Slightly irrelevant example, but it shows how society isn’t really as chivalrous as we had envisioned. It truly says something when we look at dolphins with love and affection, but turn a blind eye on the double-sized burger sitting in the fridge of every fast food chain.
    On a side note, if we really want to save our world, we should hunt down every person plagued by obesity, throw them into a fitness center, and provide them a new diet plan. This way, we (the society) might stop killing innocent little beef-lings, have less heart attacks, create less dark clouds, and walk a few meters further down the block. The obese get to look (ever so slightly) more like whoever the current-most-hot-man/woman, and the world is prolonged from its imminent doom. Countless (obese) birds killed with one stone, it’s perfect. :p

  35. JonJon says:

    Methinks there is a difference between whales and dolphins and cows and chickens… The latter two are bred for human consumption while the former two aren’t.

    If they started breeding whales and dolphins for human consumption instead of poaching them for their “scientific purposes”…

    Having said that, I love Japan :).

  36. Ryuko_Hikaru says:

    Let’s support her! From today onwards, we shall have algae and fungi for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

  37. Fabian says:

    I wouldn’t mind if they were killed to be eaten and in the least painful way possible, but from what I heard those fisherman killed them, because they thought that the dolphins would eat away their fish. That is something I can’t agree with. There should be enough fish if they didn’t overfish to begin with and blaming it on dolphins (or any other animals) is just plain wrong.

    Also, I highly doubt anyone would eat dolphin meat for the reason stated in the blog entry above (mercury) and I don’t think that the Department of Health would approve the selling of poisoned meat as food.

    That said, I hate media stunts like this.

  38. manga says:

    DarkMirage: Then there are more reasons for them to kill the dolphins if they do in fact eat them, that was more than I knew but you learn something new everyday.

    But on the other hand, remembering how much poaching the humans do it´s still to much and sure, I don´t know but somewhat I feel that humans do kill for leisure, or sorry, the reason they kill is for money.

    And to add: do the people know the difference between the different species of dolphin? Since there are a lot of different kinds. Thus you can easily make a species go extinct just because of that :(

    It feels like I´m on both sides… one part of me is willing to kill dolphins for meat, for food since that is the natural way. One part of me is against all killing since we´ve made a lot of species go extinct in the past and if people are let free they will kill everything.

  39. quendidil says:

    They could actually send all the beef, pork, chicken or whatever meat to third-world countries, where it might help those people. Our planet is producing more than enough food to feed the world but yet a large portion of humans are still starving. Granted, this is a vast improvement over previous ages, but, with our current technology, it should be more than possible to feed the hungry.

    The only dolphins that are endangered are mostly freshwater species, like the Yangtze Dolphins or the Indus River Dolphins; the Chinese White Dolphin, one endangered species that lives in the ocean, is in fact more threatened by pollution from sewage and pesticides than human hunting. From what I see, the Japanese hunting of Dolphins is quite strictly regulated. It would be far more prudent to say, halt the rate that coal power plants are being opened in China.

    As previously stated, dolphin killing is cruel, but no more than what goes on at an abattoir. If news comes that Hayden is a true vegan AND avoids products made from the slaughter of animals, that will slightly vindicate her in my eyes; however, seeing as she carries leather handbags and wears leather shoes, I have no further comment.

    That being said however, I believe most people’s health would improve with at least a semi-vegetarian diet, unless you really need the protein from meat for bodybuilding or whatever. Myself, while I don’t particularly care for terrestrial meat, I love fish.

  40. DarkMirage says:

    JonJon:

    You argument brings up two interesting questions.

    1. Is it okay to kill wild tunas for food? They were not bred to die either. What about wild salmons, crabs and tons of other seafood caught in the wild?

    2. What is the difference between killing a wild dolphin and killing a dolphin bred in captivity that makes you think that the latter is more acceptable? I personally find this pseudo moral justification highly offensive.

    I think so-called differences between cows and dolphins are just bullshit. Ultimately, it’s just the “cuteness” factor clouding people’s judgement.

    That said, I am not advocating that we all eat dolphins. I just think that it’s no big deal that the Japanese eat dolphins and all the mainstream media coverage on Hayden’s “Hero-ic” efforts is giving the wrong impression to people as to what environmental conservation is really about.

  41. JonJon says:

    Hi DarkMirage,

    Population is another issue… I’ve read somewhere that America is trying to place a 5 year ban on tuna fishing due to depleting resources. But with Salmons and crabs and mussels and shellfishes (some of which are bred in captivity), their populations are replenishable.

    You may be right however with the cuteness factor, the more “human” an animal is, the less likely we’ll be eating it. With dolphins, it’s their intelligence, friendliness and rather playful nature that makes it more “human”. Which is why not many of us can stomach dogs and dolphins…

    Besides, I read somewhere that dolphin meat has high levels of mercury and toxicity… not sure how valid this is, but anyone who eats dolphin meat continuously over a long term may find some interesting health issues… :D

  42. exalt dragon says:

    There’s no need to initiate polemics. Simple explanation: Survival of the Cutest. Ethology has long acknowledged this. Except now it’s cross-species.

  43. Gene says:

    I think her intentions are right, but her reasonings are way off. I’m pretty much a carnivore and I have seen animals getting slaughtered for our consumption. Its not a pretty sight, but I’ve chosen to eat them anyway.

    The point is dolphns and whales are not bred for our consumption. If we continue to hunt these animals without any restrictions, there is a possibility that the ecosystem will be irreversibly destroyed in the near future.

    Close monitoring and surveillance should be implemented to prevent over-hunting. The Japanese should just admit that they are hunting these animals for food and not “scientific studies”, thats just plain pretentious.

    My 2-cents worth…

  44. DarkMirage says:

    “Without restrictions”

    Well then, what’s the problem? We already have quotas in place.

  45. Gene says:

    Not all places. Certain fishing areas in Japan still do not have quotas in place. Eg. Iki, Nagasaki Prefecture.

  46. blargh says:

    dolphins are above all other mammals because they are the only mammals other than humans who have sexual intercourse for fun/feeling good.

  47. quendidil says:

    ^Bonobos do too.

  48. Ashalei Hanks says:

    When people kill animals, (especially dolphins, since they are my favorite animal,) it makes me think of how stupid we humans can be! I mean, look at all the fishers. I know they’re “just fish”, but still, they have a life, feelings, and a body that can het hurt! Every living creature deserves a life, a right, and reason to be alive!

  49. DarkMirage says:

    What about when dolphins kill tunas?

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