Japanese School Outing

10 tear old Japanese schoolkids are being taken on field trips to watch Baird's beaked whales being dismembered in order to teach them about Japan's commercial whaling industry.

Full Story

Surely this is just an attempt to brainwash young Japanese minds into believing that whaling is culturally important to them? Do the Japanese have a point? Are the conditions right to once more start harvesting whales? I don't think so. The following is a quote by Shigeko Misaki (formerly of Japanese Whaling Association) from the article:


To me, that just shows the silliness of Japan's whole position... Japan has a population in excess of 127 million people, and whales are just not numerous enough (nor do they breed quickly enough to maintain population levels when hunted) to be a viable and reliable source of meat protein for that many people.

Pure brainwashing.

ha! more like pure delicious

Disgusting. When are people going to get their heads out of their arses and do something about the Japs and their murdering ways?!

How is harvesting a whale for food ANY different to harvesting any other animal for food (ie cattle). As long as you dont harvest to extision why should there bee a problem?

I'm afraid I have to agree. If whales weren't cute or supposedly intelligent I don't think people would be crying about it. I'm not a whaling supporter but it does seem a little hypocritical to me that it's OK to eat certain types of specifically bred animals and certain wild ones but not OK to eat the cuddly ones. The western horror at the Asian practice of eating dogs springs to mind here. Or people who cringe at the idea of eating horse. Meat is meat. It's either rare(excuse the pun) or it's not. It's either smart or it's not.

The difference is, that cows/cattle are not in danger of becoming extinct. I personally have no issues with people eating dogs either (I've even had some myself) or any other cute animal for that matter, but once again, dogs etc are not endangered.

The intelligence of the whale isn't real one of the main reasons why I think an indefinite whaling moratorium is a good idea. It is, however, something worth thinking about... particularly when you consider the fact that the method of slaughter is a long drawn-out affair that is undoubtedly painful, and bound to be exceptionally distressing for the animal.

Point taken and there is indeed no need for any endangered species to be eaten however no reliable data exists to red-list this whale and Japan kills 62 a year out of an estimated population of 30,000.
I agree a whale's death is not pleasant but I don't think a cattle, sheep or pig's demise in a commercial slaughterhouse is any more appealing. The whale stands a far greater chance of escape than they do.
What is your reason for supporting a global whaling moratorium then, ymg?

It's a number of things... Primarily though, it is the unsustainability of whales as a source of food (and various byproducts). You mentioned one particular species that has 30,000 specimens left, and that seems fair enough, but ask yourself this; if we (globally speaking) would still be happily munching away on steaks and Big Mac's if there were only 30,000 cows left on the entire planet - and they took between a year and 16 months to gestate and up to 20 years to mature.

There are 20 times that number of African elephants (their life cycle is similar to many whales) yet the world has recognised that hunting them was unsustainable... Why then are some states dragging their feet when it comes to coming to the same conclusion for whales?

This post has been edited by yourmercifulgod: Jun 29 2008, 08:21 PM

Well, I think part of it is the 'seals eat fish' argument. Japan relies very heavily on seafood. Killing other things that eat seafood seems like a good survival strategy to me.

I don't suppose anyone has touched on the Japanese yearly torture and murder of Dolphins, have they?

To me the issue is intelligence. We don't have to eat fellow intelligent animals, or dumb ones for that matter, so why do we feel the need to?

I suppose this may sound terrible, but frankly it's because they taste so delicious!


I think one of the reasons why I'd be against the elephant hunting is less because of their numbers on the planet, and more because of the fact that elephants were largely being slaughtered for sport, and for their tusks, as opposed to a lot of the other animals mentioned that are slaughtered (inhumanely, I'd admit) for consumption. I remember watching documentaries as a kid where locals would find dead elephants with all but their tusks intact. Now, that's just plain old greed at work!

You can't murder a dolphin. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human person with malice aforethought. We feel the need to because otherwise we'd have to eat four times the weight of veggies. Are you a vegetarian m15hun? It's interesting you'd be happy to murder a kiddie fiddler even if he was more intelligent than a dolphin. Would you eat him afterwards?

This post has been edited by arrgh: Jul 3 2008, 05:14 AM

One might argue that the term 'murder' could be used in regard of any creature that is capable of sentience.

I have no qualm with putting any animal (including homo-sapiens) down if it poses a threat to others. But rounding up whales, dolphin or any other conscious, intelligent animal (again, including homo-sapiens) and painfully slaughtering them to satisfy the cruel and superstitious want of a backward culture's wrong, whichever way you want to spin it.

I wouldn't have a problem with people eating meat if they caught/bred and slaughtered the animal themselves but they don't. They'll happily tuck into a nice lamb joint on a Sunday without giving a seconds thought to the pain and suffering that's been forced onto that infant animal so that they might fill their fat guts without feeling guilty.

Factory slaughter's bullshit. If you want to satisfy your need to eat meat, have the balls to treat the animal with some respect and look it in the eye before you take its life.

This post has been edited by m15hun: Jul 3 2008, 05:28 AM

So, do you?

Don't eat it, mate. Don't get me wrong, I have in the past (camel's particularly nice) and I do eat fish that I catch (which isn't very often ) but I strongly oppose factory slaughter and cruelty to animals.

This post has been edited by m15hun: Jul 3 2008, 06:32 AM