Quote Originally Posted by wolfy-hound View Post
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.

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.