Schoolies_2004 said:
What really pissed me off about these Japs and the whale was a quote from some Jap whale official guy which was something like:
"How would Australias feel if we stopped you fro meating kangaroo?"
What a sterotypical comment that in that we all eat kangaroo at the levels Japs eat whales! And furthermore, the key difference between the two is that Kangaroos are in Australia in plague proportions, often needing to be culled - but there are shyte all whales realistically left! So that comment had always made my blood boil!
Two things i dont understand though, is firstly how the fark can Japs come into our waters through that loophole....its out water, if research on them needs to be done we should be the only ones able to do it! (Although we know that a BS excuse). And secondly, couldnt a defence to that research bullshit be that they should use dead/beached whales for these purposes, espeically in regards to that species of whale that is endangered that they kilL!? No that this matters, the mere fact that they HAD a quota of 400 and now have one of 900 proves its BS, why the hell would research need that many animals killed
. I say Australia hires some mercernaries to take out the Jap fleet, then its no-ones fault
A-fucking-men.
What the Japanese whalers don't seem to understand as, as you say, the difference in populations and the WAY THE ANIMAL IS KILLED.
Firstly, kangaroos, as have been previously said, are in plague proportions. The meat that we eat from kangaroos (apparently called 'australus', now) are from humanely culled or farmed animals - operative word being HUMANE. We cull them to both protect our crops and the damage too many of them can do to the environment. Whales, however, in their very nature, are NEVER in 'plague proportions' - their size and food needs means that there would never be a food supply large enough to prompt and support a 'plague' (which also explains their extremely low reproductive rates, which hinder their ability to bounce back from a huge loss in numbers due to whaling - in fact, the Antarctic population of blue whales never recovered, and is considered extinct, just like the southern right whale is about to become). Killing them doesn't help the environment - it upsets the balance of food within both the nekton (upper layer animals, such as fish/whales/krill etc) and the benthic animals (seafloor) that rely on whale carcasses NATURALLY killed (called 'whale fall' - a large carcass can sustain a benthic population for close to two years) to survive.
Secondly, the way in which kangaroos and whales are killed differs enormously. Kangaroos, to meet our own abbatoir regulations, are killed humanely, like the cows and pigs and lamb that we eat. Whales are
butchered - they are chased by the whaling whip until they are exhausted, shot with an EXPLOSIVE HARPOON that is supposed to kill them quickly but which, in actual fact, leaves them in agonizing pain as they bleed to death through the resulting massive hole in their side, tied to the hull of the ship (though some mercifully drown by the rushing of water into their blowholes). It is horribly inhumane. It is cruel, and savage, and a bloody, unnecessary way to die.
The dolphins that I mentioned earlier, as well as smaller species of whale such as pilot whales and false killer whales, are herded into shore by the thousands by nets and boats. In the shallows, teams of men in boats
slash their throats - by the end the entire bay where they are killed are stained red by the quantity of blood shed. This is done in Norway, as well, with their allowed catch of whales for 'cultural reasons'.
There is nothing that humans do that is more barbaric.
What's worse is that whales and dolphins are so smart that I and many others in the field believe that they have a kind of intelligence like us - sentience, or being self-aware - which means that the entire time that they are
tortured, they know what is happening to them, are acutely aware of the pain. They SUFFER. (This is actually the reason why I don't go to 'Seaworld' and the like. The orcas and dolphins you see on display suffer acutely from being separated from their pods - their families, essentially, as females within a pod stay together for the entire duration of their 70-odd years - and from being confined and forced to perform for their dinner. We don't confine humans in a circus, now do we? We'd go insane. So do they. That, however, is another rant, as is the finning of sharks.)
But yes. I like the Japanese as a race, but in this they are fucking primitive bloodthirsty lunatics.
Phanatical said:
Whale meat is quite a delicacy in Japanese cuisine.
Eating whales is like eating kangaroo. Only difference is nobody gets pissy at us when we hit a kangaroo with our cars.
Kangaroo meat is a sustainable resource. Whale meat is most definantly not. When did you last kill a whale by accidently running over it?