japanese whaling

[Nemhy]

1. I think the whole "oh theres a diffrence between killing for food and whaling" Makes little sense. Killing Chickens, Cows and Pigs, aren't frowned upon (by meat eaters) because it's been in our culture as humans for years. Yes, their numbers are abundant and I like my KFC and yes they're kinda dumb. I'm not saying Whaling is right or wrong, what I'm trying to say is that Killing is Killing. Wether it's self defense, food, hate, pleasure it's all still Killing animals.

Saying that killing something of low intelligence is ok but something of higher intelligence is a crime sounds just wrong to me.

Also the Whale's death may be painfull but it lives it's own happy little life before it gets....destroyed. Do you know how Slaughter houses and meat farmers treat their animals? Most of them are abused, beaten, live in dirty cages, basiclly a living hell untill it's their time to die.

I do agree that killing endangered species is wrong. But I'm just saying how I feel about comparing whaling to slautgher houses

[theAlphaDuck]

farm animals are treated well....

cows spend thier days milling about in fields...
chickens are too dumb to know any better....and also alot are FREE range..

the key is the death..its painfull and cruel....

also they are an endangered specieces.....

like those idiots who think a TIGER will somehow HEAL them...

backwards idiots

ITS NOT MEDICINE...ITS TEA!

[Nemhy]

SOME farms treat them well. You never know what happens when people arent around. and I'm talking about famrs that breed and slaughter as the main profession. not an actual farm that does other things along with meat.

I do agree that killing them for tea....I mean medicene is wrong. We should just fund Stem-cell research


Also ALL death is cruel :P If I chop a random child's head off quick and painlessly with a sword would you not think I was a cruel person? :P

[Nemhy]

Want some Dolphin on a stick?

[Wasabista]

Originally Posted by JoshAussie

Just stop eating fucking whale.

The problem isn't people eating whale. It's the whaling community and their addiction to welfare money.

Japanese don't like the shit, at least not at actual cost. It usually sits and rots on the store shelves. The only reason anyone buys it at all is that the government subsidizes the prices. Crazy.

[Sinestra]

WOW we really have a thread about this. Its very cultural i dont think there is a way to convince the Japanese to stop it other than a multi country treaty and even then they might not sign it. Oh well I will be watching that special called Whale Wars with the green Peacers vs the Japanese whaling fleet.

I will say this.........Hunting whales for Research is just an excuse and is bullshit and we all know it. Just say you want to hunt whale because you want to eat it. Dont insult peoples intelligence. If it were really for research why the hell would you need to hunt that many whales a year.

Its crap like this why man has hunted species into extinction more evidence of man being more like cancer on this planet than being it rulers.

[wilsontheterrible]

In responce to the origional question, no, I myself dont know of any waleing heroes although I would probably assume there are. It was and continues to be a very dangerous profession and the people who went out took a lot of risks, I would suggest some inspired Google digging.

In responce to the moral and ecological aspect of whaling, if they aren't hunting protected species and have the permits, its legal. For some its tradition, for some its to make money, and others might do it for the sport. I honestly have no idea why people do it (I dont understand why people do a lot of the things they do) but its not hurting anyone (human's of course) and its not violating any international law. I personally don't see a problem with it but then I've never been overly sensative about animals.

[forgotenmemory]

Originally Posted by alexlovesrock

I think whaling is completely OK. I am a vegetarian, and I have been my whole life. But, it is hypocritical for westerners to say killing chickens and cows is ok but killing dogs and wales its not right. Its cultural arrogance. Animals are animals. As long as you aren't hunting whales to extinction, there is no argument against whaling, unless you are arguing that humans should not eat animals at all.

So many people go out and protest against whaling then eat their steaks. Hypocrites.

I think that's because people in some countries haven't eaten whale or dogs (or cats, I guees), so they kind of find it wrong to eat something like that, but if I think they grew up eating those meats, they might love it. Babies adapt easier, I guees.

[Ronin4hire]

An interesting article printed in my newspaper today regarding whaling

I agree with the writer 100%

Anti-whalers are tone deaf - Opinion: views on the news on Stuff.co.nz

At the risk of being harpooned by the anti-whalers, could I ever so tentatively suggest that we ponder a change of approach from the dangerous full-on confrontations, ship collisions and drama in the dangerous Southern Ocean.

Without a doubt, continued Japanese whaling is a huge impediment to relations with Japan, our third-largest trading partner. But if there is one thing that will rally Japanese patriotism, it is foreigners pushing the country around in public. That makes it impossible for Japanese politicians to budge, especially as the Western furore over whaling is incomprehensible in Japanese terms.

I recall a Japanese ambassador's daughter snookering me, many years ago, in a discussion on the subject.

Newly arrived in Wellington from Tokyo, the intelligent, articulate university student was genuinely puzzled about our obsession.

She was incredulous that New Zealanders could shoot and eat Bambi. And also those little white lambs that looked so pretty frolicking around in our fields. She could not bring herself to do this and could not comprehend the contradiction in our stance, though, like most Japanese, she would not eat whale meat either.

This came to mind when newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully warned last week that taxpayers could not be expected to fund rescue operations when protestors came to grief challenging Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.

The bravery, skill and idealism of the anti-whaling protestors is without doubt. The trouble is, these high-profile ritual protests seem to be contributing to the problem as well as endangering the participants. Far from hastening the end of whaling, they may actually be helping to prolong it.

The dramatic protests, while great for Greenpeace's image and fundraising, reinforce Japanese intransigence and make it more difficult for rational Japanese diplomats and bureaucrats to win the debate in the hugely powerful bureaucracies in Tokyo, and then in the Japanese parliament.

This was made clear in a revealing interview on these pages last week with Tomohiko Taniguchi, the official spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry for the past three years.

No longer a government official, he candidly admitted he loathed having to defend whaling because it was damaging to Japanese interests and irrelevant to the economy.

Whaling accounted for only .0014 per cent of the economy and employed only a few thousand in a country of 130 million.

"The stake for Japan is near zero."

About 80 Japanese politicians supported whaling, but it was a core issue for only six to eight, Mr Taniguchi pointed out.

His view was that a lowering of the level of protest could help the persuasion progress within Japan, rather than entrenching political support.

Anti-whalers are more inclined to the Bob Tizard full- frontal approach, in spite of the useful signals from Mr Taniguchi, and the Sea Shepherd protest ship will continue confrontations this year. But Greenpeace, interestingly, has opted instead for a public relations campaign in an endeavour to sway Japanese public opinion.

Of course, no one is taking the long view, to the period following a whaling ban. Ultimately there will need to be culling of non- baleen whales, which eat tonnes of fish, in much the same way as some African countries cull elephant herds to match the environment.

Either that or, as these species proliferate, we may see certain fish stocks depleted to such an extent that they are priced off our tables.

And then there are those protected and proliferating seal colonies around our coasts, consuming vast amounts of fish.

[miMix]

At least the Japanese use every part of the whale, other countries will be wasteful of some parts of the animals they kill. It is of Japanese tradition to greatly respect nature, animals and the like. Also, I often hear how people accuse the Japanese of killing dolphins and eating them, but other countries are the ones who can't even tell the difference between tuna and dolphin when dolphin is packed into tuna fish cans.