Japan and China Meat Crusine Poll

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seru1

YOu have? what does it taste like? I have always wanted to try whale >_<

---

I've eaten whale lots when I lived up in the canadian arctic, but I only ever ate whale skin, beluga and narwhale. It was served with a touch of soya sauce. It was really good. I wish I had access to it now. Basically, you gotta be tight with the natives and they hook you up.

I'm not voting, there isn't options for specific animals.

Cats and dogs are perfectly acceptable to be eaten by other cultures. I however, just as much as I think animals here, think that the animals should be treated with more welfare than they are receiving.

Dolphins however, are a completely different story. Scientists are currently working on proving that these animals are sentient officially and preventing unreasonable killings of these animals, for it would then be 'murder'.
One of the professors at my college is working on it, actually. It's very interesting.
So no, I don't think it's right for them to eat dolphins, especially the endangered species that they are constantly killing for better fish harvesting off of the Japanese coast.

Even though there are thriving numbers of dolphins else ware, the species that they are hunting are NOT thriving, and many are near extinction.
Also, I do think you shouldn't eat one animal because it's better than another, or otherwise it would be acceptable to eat humans, because humans are animals too and they have meat just like every other animal.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mr. s

I've eaten whale lots when I lived up in the canadian arctic, but I only ever ate whale skin, beluga and narwhale. It was served with a touch of soya sauce. It was really good. I wish I had access to it now. Basically, you gotta be tight with the natives and they hook you up.

---

Being tight with the natives is called a black market and illegal importation of endangered species. The only reason they are allowed to hunt and kill them is because that is their only food source, and their populations are low.

Umm, actually the natives are allowed to kill whales because it's their cultural right. And if you are in alaska and share with native friends, it's not importing or a black market. My husband was in alaska and ate whale once with some friends up there. If someone is SELLING the meat/blubber or shipping it elsewhere.. then you'd have an issue.

And there's folks who claim that the family dog is just like a person too, and they are working to give the dog equal rights like a human, but that has nothing to do with whether someone should eat a dog somewhere. It's still just an opinion. You can pretty much teach a chicken to do almost every trick they've shown dolphns doing. It's all in how you interpet the data.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

Being tight with the natives is called a black market and illegal importation of endangered species. The only reason they are allowed to hunt and kill them is because that is their only food source, and their populations are low.

---

Wolfy is right. No, it's not illegal.

Also, the species hunted is mainly bottlenose dolphins and pilot whales, both very numerous species. Neither are in any danger of going extinct and are commonly found across the globe. So the argument that they will go extinct is also inaccurate.

Most of my objections to whale hunting is based on non-sustainable harvesting, which the IWC deals with when they set quotas for different species, and the manner of killing, which sometimes is cruel or inhumane, although the explosive harpoons have quickened the death, compared to the original harpooning. Most dolphin hunting involves lancing a dolphin for a heart stab, which is said to be one of the faster humane ways to kill a cetacean(according to some rescuers of stranded cetaceans).

If the species is numerous enough to harvest in sustainable numbers, then it's really not much different than hunters in the US killing black bears(using them with the numbers and reproductive abilities again). Bear fanciers believe bears are very spiritual and special, just as many think dolphins and whales are super special. But that's still just opinions.

I studied cetaceans for quite some time, and I do think that they are amazing creatures. That doesn't mean they are anything more than amazing animals. The great whales show little more intelligence than any other animal, although there could be a lack of oportunity since people don't get much chance to run studies on great whales after all.

I like horses, but I would not declare that horses can't be eaten in Europe. Telling the Japanese people that they cannot kill dolphins is not much different than the Japanese people coming here and telling us we cannot kill black bears.

IF and WHEN someone manages to somehow prove that a dolphin is indeed a self-aware, completely intelligent entity that matches a human's abilities, then perhaps I will revise my opinion(and yes, I realize it's merely an opinion), but until that day arrives, dolphins are cool animals who happen to taste like beef.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Umm, actually the natives are allowed to kill whales because it's their cultural right. And if you are in alaska and share with native friends, it's not importing or a black market. My husband was in alaska and ate whale once with some friends up there. If someone is SELLING the meat/blubber or shipping it elsewhere.. then you'd have an issue.

---

Which is what I thought he was referring to when he said that he had 'connections with the natives' but did not live there.

Quote:

---

And there's folks who claim that the family dog is just like a person too, and they are working to give the dog equal rights like a human, but that has nothing to do with whether someone should eat a dog somewhere. It's still just an opinion. You can pretty much teach a chicken to do almost every trick they've shown dolphns doing. It's all in how you interpet the data.

---

Also, the dolphin intelligence is not an opinion, a lot of data shows that they have sentient feelings and emotional ties to their families with brain waves that other animals do not have. It doesn't matter what tricks they learn, it matters how much true intelligence and reasoning they have. After all, they are the only other animals (besides humans) that have sex for pure enjoyment and not instinct.

I understand the family dog thing, but that is really just an opinion and has no scientific backing. Pigs have been shown to be more intelligent than dogs, but we eat them constantly.
Also, cows and other specific livestock are SACRED in other countries and religions, which is a bit more offensive than 'my family friend', even though both are offensive.

Like I said, I'll still use the human argument. There are 6.5 billion people on this planet, that's hardly going extinct, but does that make it right to kill them when there are other available sources of food? (and healthier)

Bison had numbers in the 100's of millions when the Europeans first colonized here, and they dropped to less than 100 at one point. They have now been barely saved from extinction, but it's just a point. Just because there is such a large number, does not make it right.

On a personal note I'd just like to say I don't personally care how smart a dolphin is. It could read war and peace and write an A+ book report, but If I was hungry and it tasted good between two buns with some cheese and mustard I'd eat that sucker.


From a religious standpoint that I know everyone doesn't share. Man is given dominion over animals. Now I believe we should be responsible with that dominion and that means not over farming, hunting, fishing, etc. But I still believe man has the god given right to eat any animal he wants whether or not it be a good choice.

No offense to any one person I just see the smart dolphin arguement being brought up alot and I thought I'd throw in my measly 2 cents.

We don't kill humans because we're humans. Dolphins are not humans. Your arguments about their levels of sentience are still basically opinions based on research, no one can prove a dolphin is sentient. The whole sex thing I won't even bother with, because it's unproveable. There's plenty of research that will claim lots of things.. need I quote the research showing pythons taking over the US?

Most research studies are biased according to what the researcher wants to prove. No, it's not the way research is supposed to go, just like interpeting data goes according to what result you want to get in many cases. Elephants are said to be sentient.. then great apes.. or whichever super special animal you're fond of. Just because they are more intelligent than most animals.. or show some signs of self-awareness.. still doesn't mean they are equivalent to a human being.

Dolphins seem to have a language.. seem to be very intelligent.. seem to be a lot. But the proof isn't there. Extra brain activity was supposed to be their echolocation being used and interpted in the last study on dolphin brain waves that *I* read.

Until they are proved to be sentient people.. they're animals. No matter how cool.

Oh.. and I would not use bison as an example of sustainable harvesting. They were taken to the brink of extinction and saved through more luck than anything else. People did not think about their numbers, reproductive rates etc.. then say "We should kill xx bison a year". They wholesale salughtered until there weren't any.

As long as populations are sustainable, sure. Not really different from americans eating cows, or the french eating horses.

Now, one could bring up speciesism of course. Maybe somebody likes dolphins or doesn't give a crap about dogs. Or maybe this person doesn't care about humans but likes centipedes.