Wow, this discussion has raised all sorts of interesting ethical issues! BTM's post (and Ob's reply about "evil cows"
) expressed it well.
I myself have very mixed feelings about these issues. On the one hand, I do happen to eat animal flesh, except for the kind subjected to senseless cruelty while alive (foie gras, milk-fed veal, etc.). On the other hand, I also believe that the world would be a better place if everyone followed a vegetarian diet. Perhaps that makes me a hypocrite, and I cannot defend myself against that accusation except to say that my personal circumstances unfortunately make total vegetarianism impractical and cumbersome for me.
The sustainability factor vs. the anti-killing factor further complicates the issue. If, as BTM postulated, whale populations once again become abundant.... and if, as he further postulated, whaling techniques become less cruel (i.e., a quick and painless kill).... then any arguments against whaling will lose credibility
unless they come from the lips of a strict vegetarian.
Also, does the fact that an animal is "magnificent" or "beautiful" (at least in the eyes of
homo sapiens) make slaughtering it for food any more heinous than slaughtering an animal labeled "ordinary" or "ugly" by our own standards? Pigs, for example, are not considered "magnificent" or "beautiful" by most people.... nursery rhymes and A.A. Milne notwithstanding. Yet research has indicated that pigs are at least as intelligent as dogs, if not more so. Most Westerners recoil at the thought of eating dogs, and are appalled at Asian cultures which do not have similar qualms, but these same Westerners will not think twice about chowing down on pork or bacon or ham.
We tend to demonize some animal species and canonize others.... and we consider eating members of the latter category a reprehensible act. But aren't we anthropomorphizing just a wee bit here? Everyone (myself included) gets all blissed-out over bottlenosed dolphins; but awhile ago I saw a nature show about "the dark side of dolphins", and it revealed that they aren't exactly the angelic critters we imagine them to be. While bottlenoses seem to have a fondness for humans, they also have a predilection for unprovoked group attacks on other dolphin species.... not for food, but for pleasure. One particularly disturbing segment of this program showed a pod of male bottlenoses ganging up on a member of a smaller species, tormenting it savagely and ramming the hapless creature within an inch of its life; and one of the bottlenoses clearly had a huge erection while engaging in this random violence.
If the general public were more aware of such tendencies in our favorite cetaceans, would that give a green light to putting Flipper on the menu? And assuming bottlenose dolphin populations are abundant, what makes eating a pig -- an animal nearly as intelligent as a dolphin, and certainly equally capable of feeling pain and fear -- more acceptable than eating a bottlenose dolphin?
I don't have any easy answers to the above questions, and I am as guilty as any
homo sapiens of selectively admiring and condemning various animal species based solely on aesthetics and anthropomorphization. But I do think that the issue is much more complicated and much less black-and-white than activists on both sides would have us believe.
Carry on,
Tani
baldtankman;128160 said:
I have been lucky enough to swim with dolphin and orca and they are such impressive animals that I would think I will always be opposed to whaling but if it is sustainable and not cruel then what?