223 replies to this topic

[Oyuki kigan]

So if you haven't heard by now, the Cove is a doc about the annual dolphin cull in the seaside village of Taiji, Japan (and coincidentally, the sister village of Hakuba)

You can go see the movie, or even just search youtube for images. And its pretty barbaric. Animals are herded in the cove, metal rode are put into the water and banged around, disrupting the dolphins sonar, and they are either taken alive (for sale to aquariums) or butchered alive (and quite brutally) for meat.

There have been protests for a long time, and the village has gotten more and more viligant about hiding the slaughter every year, but the doc got made. (actually, there have already been several films reporting about Taiji, including Earthlings )

So have any of you seen it? I am all for affording animals some kind of protection against the idiocy of human greed, but i still don't quite understand the one-sided outrage against hunting and eating dolphins or whales. In Canada, we treat seals just as bad, if not worse. Not to mention the average factory-farmed animal. And none of the fish we eat ever ends with a pleasant death.

What makes dolphins so special?

[TubbyBeaverinho]

I haven't seen the doc, but I have seen footage from similar programmes. It is a horrible thing to watch, but I don't really share the outrage TBH. If they wanna kill the dolphins and eat them, then thats up to them. As far as I know, killing dolphins doesn't contravene international law (I don't think they are endangered) so people's outrage must be due to the rather horrible images of sea water that is crimson. Like you say Oyuki, cows and pigs are treated in a similar fashion at slaughterhouses and no-one really bats an eyelid.

[Oyuki kigan]

Well, some people do care. I think any animal, especially the ones that die for our appetites, deserve to be treated with a modicum of respect. We have laws against people mistreating pets, and the EU has recently banned seal products from Canada on similar grounds.

[TubbyBeaverinho]

Originally Posted By: Oyuki kigan

Well, some people do care. I think any animal, especially the ones that die for our appetites, deserve to be treated with a modicum of respect. We have laws against people mistreating pets, and the EU has recently banned seal products from Canada on similar grounds.

of course I didn't say otherwise....its not as if I enjoy a good days seal bashing. I was merely agreeing with your sentiment that "what makes dolphins so special"

[Creek Boy]

mate, you made a similar comment on my facebook page and I dont think dolphins are any different from cows. Its how they go about killing them that is atrocious. If they killed them with a single blow itd be one thing, but they dont, the animals bleed to death. How anybody could go about slashing at ANY animal and letting them die by bleeding to death is beyond me. I find that appalling. Id be just as grossed out if it were cows or pigs.

The irony is, the Japanese started to hide the fact AFTER protest from organizations around the world. If it isnt such a big deal why cover it up and lie about it.

Also, do any of you know how much mercury is in the bottlenose and risso dolphins they catch? On average up to 22 times the governments permitted concentration, and ya know what, the govt doesnt do anything to stop them though they can cause serious birth defects in pregnant women. There have been studies done by a Uni up in Hokkaido that round that 87 times the allowed concentration was found.

FWIW, I dont want to see any animal bleed to death. At least do it in one blow.

[TubbyBeaverinho]

It does happen to pigs, Pigs are "stunned" then have their underbelly slit from throat to tail and hung upside down.....still very much alive. Yeah they are high in mercury......but I'm not eating it, thats why I said if they wanna eat that shit then thats up to them

[Black Mountain]

One of the reasons this particular story is always so one sided is that local fisherman, in fact any local, refuses to talk about it. If they have nothing to hide or be ashamed about, why not talk about what goes on there? There was an interesting article today where the major of Taiji was quoted as saying,

“Everyone around here knows about it. The water nearby turns red during the hunt. The actual killing is done in a concealed area because it is unpleasant to look at,”

and

"there is nothing to hide."

So which is it? There is nothing to hide or the killings are unpleasant to look at? I've gotta agree with CB on this one... anyone would be upset if the way we slaughtered livestock was the tie it up and then stab it repeatedly until it bled to death.

[thursday]

Halal meats too.

[Oyuki kigan]

My answer is on your facebook page, i won't repeat it here.

I hate what is happening in Taiji too, and i'm glad that you are doing your part in educating people about it.

My point is that i don't see how it the callous butchery of dolphin is fundamentally different from how we treat any other animal that is killed for human consumption.

[Oyuki kigan]

Originally Posted By: Black Mountain

is nothing to hide or the killings are unpleasant to look at? I've gotta agree with CB on this one... anyone would be upset if the way we slaughtered livestock was the tie it up and then stab it repeatedly until it bled to death.

With the sheer amount of animals we breed to keep up demand for meat, that happens more that one would like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZSeaoYQeOM

Unfortunately, i believe that having a video camera in a livestock facility is more of a rarity than that kind of behavior.

[TubbyBeaverinho]

Originally Posted By: Black Mountain

So which is it? There is nothing to hide or the killings are unpleasant to look at?

I think if you watched what happens in any regular abbatoir you would find it unpleasant to look at. I think also the noise of the dolphins would trigger disgust in people, it sounds as if they are screaming. However lambs and pigs also have high pitched screams that would tug on our emotional heart strings yet there is no international furore. I also don't think it helps that the Eco-Nazis come scrambling out of their smelly holes and try to pressure Japan into changing...well done hippies, that's really gonna work!!

[Mamabear]

Tubby do all the people eating dolphin know and make that conscious decision to consume stupidly high levels of mercury?

I wouldnt be surprised if it is just something that communities have done in the past, and continue to do without realizing that either there is a high mercury level, or that there are REAL problems with consuming that much mercury.

Education is a good thing. You can't guarantee what people will do with that knowledge, but I think doc's like The Cove serve a very valuable purpose, even if they only open a few peoples eye's a little wider to the cruel way these dolphins are dispatched..

[Black Mountain]

What makes dolphins special is all the of things that other animals are not... cute, intelligent, trainable ect. People can also see themselves as dolphins... no one thinks cows or pigs are cool and no one wants to be like one! It's true that it's all about perception... are you saying that is wrong? Personally, I think there is a connection between dolphins and humans that doesn't exist with most animals... dogs and cats might fit this category as well.

[Mamabear]

We have flipper to thank for the warm fuzzys with dolphins...

[TubbyBeaverinho]

They have a big festival after the cull and everyone is happy as larry chomping down on Dolphin meat...no one forces them to eat it.

Thursday makes a good point in that Halal meats are prepared in a way that doesn't kill the animal outright, the blood drains from its body and with it its life, but there hasn't been international documentaries about that. Sure I agree, I don't think watching scenes like the Cove is very palatable and a more humane way would be much nicer on our sensibilities BUT the meat that we eat is hardly killed in the most humane manner but because its out of sight in a nice abbatoir, where the blood all gets collected together and not allowed to run off into the streets, rivers or sea then its out of sight out of mind, "but damn those poor dolphin killers, what did the dolphins ever do to them?!"

[Black Mountain]

I'm well aware that animal abuse happens all over the place... I've actually worked in an abattoir and even spent a month on the killing floor. The abuse is the exception, not the rule. How about what happens in Taiji? The only method of killing these animals incredibly inhumane. Sorry, but the comparisons seem a bit misleading to me.

[Black Mountain]

It's quite easy to understand the distinction with halal meat actually because it is a religious ceremony in reverence to the animals, not to make a quick buck. Whether it is right or wrong is another matter all together.

[Mamabear]

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver

They have a big festival after the cull and everyone is happy as larry chomping down on Dolphin meat...no one forces them to eat it.

But do they really understand that they are chowing down on toxic levels of mercury and what that mercury can do to their children?

[TubbyBeaverinho]

Dunno

[Black Mountain]

Thabiha or Dhabiha (Arabic: ذبيحة‎), is the prescribed method of ritual slaughter of all animals excluding fish and most sea-life per Islamic law. This method of slaughtering animals consists of a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular veins and carotid arteries of both sides but leaving the spinal cord intact. It is believed to kill instantly and painlessly by Muslims. Sounds just like corralling a bunch of animals into a corner and then randomly stabbing them to death, doesn't it.

Muslims are explicitly forbidden to eat meat from an animal that has strangled, beaten or gored to death.