Japan? WTF?!

[17th Angel]

I was over this house yesterday sorting some stuff out and I saw on the tv in the front room something about Japanese fishermen... I went in to have a better look and it shows these Japense fishermen hacking dolphins to bits.... I mean... wtf........ Makes me want to go give someone a serious ass, kicking......


ITN - Japanese fishermen clash with protesters

Thoughts?

Discuss....

[Neemai]

It's sick man. I saw a video clip once of Tuna fisherman slaughtering a whole mass of dolphins just because they had got trapped in the nets. Vegetarianism is the only answer - put these guys out of business!

Good on Hayden for making it a news event.

... Neemai

[17th Angel]

[Francis king]

yes, hopefully the gods will turn them into dolphins for their next lifetime... ha!

[Snoopy]

Yes terrible. I hear something similar happens in places called "abattoirs."

s.

[juantoo3]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

I hear something similar happens in places called "abattoirs."

Abattoirs? Good one Snoopy, made me look it up. Carnages de Boucheries, eh?

The mere act of being human seems to be inhumane at times. Vegetables still have feelings, still communicate, still are alive. Vegetarians are not immune to the carnage humans inflict upon the life around us, killing to live is still killing to live. The distinction in my opinion is in taking the life only of that you require to sustain your life, and no more, and being grateful for the life given.

Of course, even that can get fuzzy around the edges. What do we do with the rats that threaten our food stores, or the other vermin like roaches and flies that threaten the health of our children? What about the rattlesnake that surprises us in the garden? What do we do with the rabid raccoon or dog wandering the neighborhood?

Do we read the daily newspaper, or wipe our fannies with toilet tissue? Some tree somewhere died to provide those conveniences, and the processing plants are every bit as vulger and repulsive as any slaughterhouse, and even more polluting. Seems to me an attitude of callous smugness that settles over some because they eat creatures that have no eyes nor utter sounds that can be heard by human ears, that they are in some manner ethically superior to those who eat animal flesh, is quite misguided. Life sustains life, life feeds life. Life cannot survive eating anything that was not first alive, and life is life, death is death.

Killing unnecessarily, for sport, for simple convenience, is just plain wrong. But not having seen this video, I can reserve my harsh judgement because I do not know the context (and I do know very well how Hollywood exaggerates, and people are prone to emotionalism and sensationalism).

[Neemai]

Originally Posted by juantoo3

Seems to me an attitude of callous smugness that settles over some because they eat creatures that have no eyes nor utter sounds that can be heard by human ears, that they are in some manner ethically superior to those who eat animal flesh, is quite misguided. Life sustains life, life feeds life. Life cannot survive eating anything that was not first alive, and life is life, death is death.

Yes it's impossible not to kill other living beings (we kill bacteria etc... all the time), but that doesn't excuse widespread slaughter of advanced sentient life. It's got nothing to do with moral "smugness", we have to draw the line somewhere it's just practical - the debate is simply where we draw the line? Otherwise if we took the above argument to it's extreme it could used to excuse cannibalism. "Heck it's just another life form, someone's gotta die, life feeds life". Sounds stupid to us now, but in future, who knows?


... N

[juantoo3]

Kindest Regards, Neemai!

Originally Posted by Neemai

we have to draw the line somewhere it's just practical - the debate is simply where we draw the line? Otherwise if we took the above argument to it's extreme it could used to excuse cannibalism. "Heck it's just another life form, someone's gotta die, life feeds life". Sounds stupid to us now, but in future, who knows?

Yes, I agree, a line must be drawn somewhere. Culturally that line and mileage may vary. In the west we tend to cringe at the thought of eating dog, or monkey, or dolphin. In the east some cringe at the thought of eating Bambi, or Bossey, or Wilbur.

Just got done with a brief in the news...seems those dolphins were being killed for food. It is sad the Hollywood showgirl conveniently had cameras with her to film, but what would she have a poor fishing family eat instead? I imagine they are just as appalled at her (and others) when she eats at McDonalds. Now, is she ready to carry her cameras into a slaughterhouse in Kansas or Texas and film how all that beef, pork and chicken under cellophane are taken from living breathing creatures, herded and killed in a model of factory scale efficiency that would boggle a person's mind, and then packaged into neat little bags so the consumer can bypass the guilty conscience stage?

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by juantoo3

Abattoirs? Good one Snoopy, made me look it up. Carnages de Boucheries, eh?

Such places are called abattoirs in the UK, juan.

Maybe it's like the French not having a word for "entrepreneur" ?

s.

[China Cat Sunflower]

I once met a guy who had two really big snakes. He would get free kittens and feed them to his snakes, which struck me as a really horrible thing to do. But then I thought: what's the difference in feeding the snakes a rat or a kitten? One is cut and adorable, and one isn't so much.

Chris

[greymare]

about 20 minutes drive form where I live, is the natural beauty of Platypus Bay. Each spring the Humpback whales visit us to frolic in these waters on their way up the coast. We have a thriving tourism industry for all the Whale Watching visitors and sometimes it really is a question of Who is watching Who.???? These magnificent giants approach the vessels and emerge out of the water to check us out as we are doing the same.. INCREDIBLE. The mothers let their calves come close to the boats and gently nudge them away when they feel its enough.
Now the Japanese have declare war on these gentle creatures and will be hunting them as well as the other whale species they can find. The whales have developed a kind of trust with us.
Did you know that they (japanese) arent killing them for scientific purposes and they arent even killing them for food. On a documentary here it was revealed from a Japanese Embassy Official that hunting whale isnt necessary because they have a surplus of whale meat stored in their country, an oversupply. When the interviewer ask why then, were they still hunting Whale when it was clearly not necessary, the official did not reply. When he was asked was it because the west didnt want them to do it??? He walked out of the interview.
I rest my case....

[bob x]

Jack Handey had a joke:

Would we still chop down trees, if they screamed?

Sure we would, if they screamed all the time, for no particular reason.

[greymare]

i know we've had the vegetarian debate.... but thereis a BIG difference in the destruction of a wild creatures existence just because we can and beef/lamb/pork/chicken production for the omnivours (?) out there. Of course, beef abbotoirs(?) are a grisly place. Seriously, if you dont want to eat meat, then dont. I do. My family are cattle graziers, my country was built on it. If animals (any kind) are being killed for meat. well, then thats survival of the fitest, Killing isnt a sport and killing for anything other than survival is not only morally wrong but shows just how stupid mankind really is.

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

Yes terrible. I hear something similar happens in places called "abattoirs."

s.

Are cows endangered? :\

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

Are cows endangered? :\

Do they have to be? Life is life.

s.