there's too manyhumans imo

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Hmm. If humans just up and decided to stop raising them those species would vanish.

Most modern chickens wouldn't be able to survive in the wild, most of the pigs would revert to an earlier form, and dairy cows would vanish rapidly due to infections of the udder.

So maybe what we need to do is start farm raising dolphins and whales, that will then make it ok to farm them for meat?

[partis]

I kind of agree though it still makes me mad that dolphins and whales are killed and some other creatures the japanese are eating to extinction because its a delicacy.

[ggugcuuau]

I agree with BA, you can't distinguish between eating certain species unless you hold your convictions for all animals that fall into a specific category, like intelligence. I recently gave up pork after realising just how smart they are; I even want a pet pig

However the issue here is whether this species in endangered, and if so it's just horrible that people claim "because it's our culture" instead of facing reality.

Also I looked into this and apparently:

The Faroese Ministry of Health warns against consumption of pilot whale meat, since it has been shown to contain toxic levels of mercury, PCBs, and environmental poisons. The Faroese chief medical officers, Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen, announced in late 2008 that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs, and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption

... so looks like these people are just being stubborn, silly hoo-mans.

[princealbertofb]

This annoys me, nay, upsets me, no end.... I love whales and porpoises and dolphins and all this massacre is wrong. Thanks for caring, Joshular...

[davearoo]

Hmm. If humans just up and decided to stop raising them those species would vanish.

Most modern chickens wouldn't be able to survive in the wild, most of the pigs would revert to an earlier form, and dairy cows would vanish rapidly due to infections of the udder.

So maybe what we need to do is start farm raising dolphins and whales, that will then make it ok to farm them for meat?

Personally, I'd have no problem with it at all, as long as they weren't abused in captivity.

[BYoNexus]

Those pilot whales make up a quarter of the islands food supply, and although the water is bloody, there are regulations against causing suffering. The first strike is usually a killing strike.

"Faroese animal welfare legislation, which also applies to whaling, requires that animals are killed as quickly and with as little suffering as possible. Whales are killed on the shore and in the shallows of bays especially authorised for the purpose. A regulation spinal lance must be used to sever the spinal cord, which also severs the major blood supply to the brain, ensuring both loss of consciousness and death within seconds. This, in addition to the supplementary use of the traditional whaling knife, if necessary, is the most efficient and humane means of killing beached pilot whales safely, with many participants involved at the same time."

These whales are also not endangered.

Banning this practice would cause people to go hungry on the island.

But who cares, cause we think it looks inhumane

When an article deliberately changes facts to promote a certain viewpoint, I dont think it should be heeded. The article linked by the OP claims these are endangered dolphins, and that the people use cruel methods to kill them. Why rely on lying if the truth would suffice?

[Dreamer]

I follow a raw vegan lifestyle for health reasons.


Mind you, I'm not your stereotypical fascist vegan who condemns people for eating meat at annoying levels.


I understand that people enjoy the taste of meat, and have no problem with people eating it, unless they can't kill, slaughter, gut, and skin the animals that they are about to eat without losing their appetite in the process, without being traumatized by the brutal nature of killing an animal....... if they're too much of a pussy to handle that, then they shouldn't enjoy the privilege of eating animal flesh... that's my philosophy on the topic.

[southbiochem]

Meat. It does the human body good.

Humans are omnivores, meaning they can eat both vegetable matter and other animals to survive. We can process out the proteins of meat far more efficiently than from vegetable matter, then there is a widish array of other nutrients we swiftly and efficiently get out of meat without expending as much of our own energy than we do from vegetable matter.

I fail to see how this is different than eating Bacon, or Hamburger or Fried Chicken. Its all flesh, it is all badly man-handled and murdered in the prime of its life to give us tasty meat to eat.

At least Whales and Dolphins have an easier happier life. They are truly 'free range' spending their lives being out in the wide open ocean, without being stuck in a 1'x1'x1' wire cage all of their life like chickens, or being pastured and fed parts of others of their kind like Cattle - which are designed strictly vegetarian but are fed meat for protein.

Ever visit a 'factory farm'? I bet if you do you will end up buying eggs from the Egg Lady who lives down the block and flat refuse to buy them from a grocery store.

Cattle usually have it better (at least in the States) but then they have more laws protecting them than chickens (mammalian rights trump avian rights, we are speciests)

Intelligence is the issue? Then I hope you are not eating Ham and Bacon. Our Porcine cousins are brilliant, with intelligences of a bright 3- 7 year old human (Depending on which testing you are using).

I lived on a homestead, where we raised a few pigs for food. My father encouraged a close relationship between me and the pigs, had me name them, play with them (they were free to range from the pen).

Pigs are fastidious creatures. Yeah I know, they wallow in shit filled mud holes - that is only the ones who are locked up in a pen. When allowed to be free range, they will wade in the duck pond and they have distinct places where they will go potty. They can learn a vocabulary of human words to rival that of your common dog.

They can learn tricks like dogs, and can offer emotional comfort - meaning that the can tell if a human is sad, happy, angry... much like your dog can tell your emotional state.

They are keen problem solvers and have decidedly obvious emotional states, such as they can morn the loss of a sibling or parent.

Yet we have billions of people who love their bacon, and have no problem with slaughtering millions of these intelligent creatures for 'food'. (112million per year in the USA alone - yay USA) 1 million per year die from improper handling from the farm to the slaughter house. 2-3 million more die from starvation, neglect and over crowding conditions before their first year. 2-3 million more will never have to enjoy the horror which is being rounded up to taken to slaughter as they will die in cramped pens in huge groups of overly stressed pigs.

And they get all upset with a pod of whales is decimated, or a pack of wild dolphin is turned into sushi....

These creatures are not being "abused" enmass like pigs, or cattle or chickens or even worse Turkeys.

White Turkeys are abomination. They are inbred to the point where the males breasts or so large they cannot mount females. In order to procreate it requires human intervention. And like pigs, and chickens, they spend their whole short miserable lives packed into tight pens with no room to exercise, no room to even attempt to use their flight muscles (we don't want our breast meat to be tough you see).

Millions of these birds are slaughter for one holiday meal a year. Yet no one is complaining about that.

Again, why are these ocean going mammals being turned into meat more upsetting to you than the relentless abuse that is visited upon every other species which you most likely eat in western portions which is far and well beyond the amount of meat Asians eat?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes......blah, blah, I'm not becoming a vegetarian because of this, nor I'm going to stop eating horse meat cause some people deem it a horrible thing..

I can be a super meat eater and I'm still not going to condone this

you are correct, however, neither of these meat products you mentioned come from animals that are endangered, nor are they slaughetered by a mere rite of passage...

surely, practices in the food industry when it comes to animals are less than human, if you will, but there is a slight difference bewteen simply slaughtering for fun and slaughtering for food..

nevermind slaughtering al in all is messed up

[davearoo]

I follow a raw vegan lifestyle for health reasons.


Mind you, I'm not your stereotypical fascist vegan who condemns people for eating meat at annoying levels.


I understand that people enjoy the taste of meat, and have no problem with people eating it, unless they can't kill, slaughter, gut, and skin the animals that they are about to eat without losing their appetite in the process, without being traumatized by the brutal nature of killing an animal....... if they're too much of a pussy to handle that, then they shouldn't enjoy the privilege of eating animal flesh... that's my philosophy on the topic.

Just to play devil's advocate here:

Does this mean that, if you can't design and fabricate all the circuitry and other components in a computer, you shouldn't enjoy the privilege of using a computer?

[Dreamer]

Just to play devil's advocate here:

Does this mean that, if you can't design and fabricate all the circuitry and other components in a computer, you shouldn't enjoy the privilege of using a computer?

Nice try, but you're comparing apples and oranges.


Not knowing the ins and outs of computer systems can't be compared to the psychological trauma that would be induced from killing, skinning, gutting, and butchering an animal that most people who eat meat today would probably experience, had they been forced to do it, before ever eating another animal product again.


I can imagine the difficultly of putting a computer together, without ever doing it, while knowing it wouldn't weigh heavy on my conscience, if I'd failed to do so; I would still be able to use a computer without having flashbacks or guilt for not knowing where to stick the RAM on my motherboard.


I can imagine the screams and bloodcurdling noises of an animal dying, while twitching or convulsing into a tragic death, without ever doing it, would weigh very heavy on my conscience, and traumatize the fuck out of me for a very long time, to where I couldn't look at a delicious steak or chicken on my plate ever again.