The people not committing wholesale slaughter under the pretense of scientific research in an international whale sanctuary.
So you are arguing that it is ok to hunt whales if you go through the proper channels?
Eskimos harvest whales and other marine mammals using modern technology -- aluminum-hulled boats, outboard motors, rifles, explosive harpoons, cellphones, GPS units, and so forth.
Furthermore, they share, barter, trade, and sell part or all of their harvest to other Eskimos. Whale meat is used as a commodity and currency in their villages.
I can't see any difference from what the Japanese are doing. Maybe Japanese harvest more whales than Eskimos, but is that a real distinction?
Yep, those deer die real fast with an arrow stuck in their side. The ignorance flows on.I think it's deplorable that whales are hunted altogether. Will I eat the meat myself? Will I be friends with someone who eats whale meat? Do I understand the desire to build state-of-the-art ships meant only for hunting whales? Do I approve of the Japanese hunting in a whale sanctuary?
Yeah, we don't build giant land ships/tanks meant only to hunt deer. I approve of hunting deers, considering people typically kill deers rather quickly(unlike the Japanese whaling fleet with whales). Deer hunting weapons in the United States include: recurve/compound bows, crossbows, rifles, shotguns, pistols, and muzzleloaders. Alabama even allows people to hunt with spears, but rest assured, they die very quickly no matter which way you look at it. And hunting out of season is so very illegal here.
I'm okay with seal hunting by aboriginal Canadians for use in various items, such as waterproof boots/jackets. I'm not a huge fan of seal pelts being exported by the thousands to meet some sort of retarded demand from those who desire seal fur coats, or vests. What I absolutely cannot approve of is baby seal hunting.
Yep, those deer die real fast with an arrow stuck in their side. The ignorance flows on.
Just a taste of what is out there in the hunting scenes done by an estimated 11 million hunters in the US alone. No they don't have big land ships, b/c it is impractical to hunt in a wooded area with vehciles , but they have numbers. But that doesn't really matter anyway, b/c your ignorance just flows on, some of these animals can take 8-12 hours to die.
Well there you go, even if it is just one deer that dies this way it is ok to turn a blind eye? I don't see how you can condem the Japanese whaling in one breath and defend the hunting community in the other? And you are right you can't account for every hunter in the world, but what you saw is not just practiced by a few hunters...I'm ignorant because a few idiots make the entire hunting community look bad? Those monsters should have shot it in the head and killed it quickly. That's what they should have done. That's what I would have done. I cannot account for every hunter in the United States of America.
Like the slaughter of cows and pigs and chickens. I fail to see the difference.The people not committing wholesale slaughter under the pretense of scientific research in an international whale sanctuary.
Have you even researched any of those questions or are you just making statements b/c that is what you have "heard" ? The answers are all in the IWC's reports?I agree with you on point #1, there's rarely such thing as a painless death, especially in the wild, my question was if anything was being actively pursued in researching more effective ways of making the deaths as quick and humane as possible. Just because animals can die in slow and painful ways that doesn't mean we shouldn't still respect them and try to at least give them the courtesy of a clean and quick death.
I know without a doubt the way the Japanese kill dolphins is absolutely atrocious and I don't suspect their whaling is much better considering whales are far harder to bring down than dolphins.
My main problem with point #2 is that population reports always seem to be sketchy at best, guesswork at worse. It's much harder to track animal populations in the sea then on land and I've seen vastly different reports on both sides as to Minke Whale populations.
As for #3, as I said before, last I heard large stocks of whale meat were going to waste in warehouses because the demand just wasn't there. I believe Japan was actually trying to sell their overabundance of meat to whale eating European countries.
Pretty good for a non-profit, supposedly-altruistic organization, wouldn't you say?
I'd be more interested in these questions:
1. Are whales killed by the best and least-painful methods possible? Bear in mind that it's impossible, even in heavily-regulated hunting, to always ensure an instant, painless death for the animal.
Bear in mind that nature itself does not provide for such a death. Left to nature, all animals will inevitably die painful deaths due to disease, starvation, or predation (being eaten alive by bigger or stronger animals). I've seen them all in land mammals, and none of them are pretty, quick, or painless.
The test for whalers ought not to be perfection in achieving quick, painless deaths, but whether the death is inhumane in comparison with natural death.
2. Are whalers hunting endangered species? American Eskimos certainly are; they hunt bowhead and humpback whales. But the Japanese hunt minke whales, whose populations are stable or growing around the world.
Incidentally, land hunting is heavily regulated because there are not enough game animals for the number of hunters. If whalers were hunting endangered or declining whale populations, my attitude would be entirely different. But when populations are stable, why would more regulations be needed?
3. Do whalers waste the meat? My understanding is the meat goes to market. Some spoilage and wastage is inevitable in any meat industry. The real question is whether that's the norm or the exception in this industry.
If you had any idea of how animals were slaughtered for food in "industrialized farming" situations, you would become vegetarian (if not already). I am not saying that whales are killed humanely, only that killing of whales is no different from that of other animals. If it were not Japan but Canada or another Western country that was killing whales, I doubt there would be this much of a fuss. So I think a lot of it is also racism by the mainstream Western media. Again, do you see mass demonstrations against the big animal farmers in the West? No! But why not, as they kill just as inhuamely as the Japanese do the whales.
Here is one prelimery research paper. And it show data on things like heavy metals.
I'm sure if you give that more than a moments thought you would realize how incredibly ill conceived that idea is.I do agree that whales should be bred like we do other farm animals
You know what they say, people who throw stones shouldn't live in glass houses. Besides that, why should it not be compared to other meat industries?@FrustratedDave
Same as above. "But the West isn't perfect either" isn't an argument. That's like saying Japan can't critique the farming habits of the West because they hunt whales so that makes their opinion invalid. It's an Ad hominem argument and I'm surprised you all have resorted to it.
The average death time is 2 minutes, which means some die faster and some die slower, so no I would not say that is best case scenario.Also, the harpoon argument is very hit an miss. Yes it IS possible to use an exploding harpoon effectively but it all depends on the skill of the hunter. And, as we have seen before (as in the case of the Dolphin hunts and even your deer vids) just because a method of hunting CAN be quick that doesn't mean it will be. Whales are infinitely harder to target and kill than deer and unless you have a skilled and precise hunter behind that harpoon it's just not going to be that effective. Two minutes or instantaneous is best case scenario.
So upwards of 6000 whales were killed between the years 1987/88-2004/05 to gather allllll that compelling data? All those years and all those thousands of whales and that's all the preliminary data they've accumulated? Seriously? It's two pages of male/female totals, sample numbers and a table of index.
And half the information in the table of index is related to climate conditions, acoustics and sightings. Hardly compelling evidence to suggest that all those whales harvested have served any significant scientific purpose.