Why save dolphins?
I love dolphins as much as the next guy, but I really don’t see why they deserve the special attention that the feel-good self-proclaimed activists like to give them.
Red Alert 2 nostalgia
I am sure you have all heard of Hayden Panettiere’s (Claire Bennett in Heroes) recent involvement in an attempt to disrupt a dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama. After failing to save the cute cuddly tuna-killers, Hayden and her friends drove their way to Osaka International Airport and fled the country before the ink on their arrest warrants dries.
Apparently, “risking” their lives (because we all know that Japanese fishing trawlers are heavily armed) is deemed a worthy sacrifice, but getting arrested for their expressed beliefs is a big no-no. What dedicated convictions! Mahatma Ghandi would’ve been so proud.
Before we go on any further, please be warned that some of the images that accompany this article may be graphic in nature.
Quoting a MSNBC report where Hayden responds to an arrest warrant issued for her in Japan.
“Obviously this issue has generated defensive behavior on the part of both the Japanese Authorities and Fishermen,” she said in the statement. “I have grown up hearing - and adhering to - this phrase: ‘condemnation without investigation dooms one to everlasting ignorance.’
“We must unite as a world to solve our increasing international environmental crises,” her statement continued. “We can no longer hide (behind) out-dated, senseless cultural traditions and lazy, bad habits that are resulting in the annihilation of our planet’s resources and the extinction of our species.
Overlooking the fact that the phrase which she claims to adhere to is completely irrelevant to the situation at hand (i.e. her breaking of Japanese laws), her statement is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with our media today.
“Dolphin killing? We are doomed I tell you!”
Annihilation of our planet’s resources? Environmental crisis? Extinction of our species? Wow, I guess that must mean The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was right after all! I never knew dolphins were that important!
This kind of celebrity activism actively discredits authentic efforts to combat real and significant issues that plague our environment today. Genuine environmentalists are forced into the same group as nut cases like Ms. Panettiere’s good friends and Greenpeace.
These people claim to be “raising awareness” for a good cause, but all they are doing is to encourage regular people to associate environmental protection with crazy hippies. Such a negative association is a serious detriment to the efforts of scientists and entrepreneurs who are actually making a difference in improving our world with real concrete efforts instead of incessant whining.
I doubt that reading about Rainbow Warrior’s latest escapades actually causes people to change their consumption habits in the slightest bit or reconsider their next SUV purchase. All it does is to give lunatics like Greenpeace bragging rights among the tree-hugging extremists.
Would you do what this guy tells you to?
If someone was serious about saving the environment, he would do best to stay as far away from these people as possible, or risk losing all credibility in the eyes of sane, reasonable people. Al Gore is a good example of a sane person who has done things infinitely more practical and beneficial than picketing a chemical factory.
Before this post gets too tangential, let’s return to dolphins. I see two general flows of argument behind those who think Ms. Panettiere’s actions actually deserve our applause.
The first is that dolphins are supposedly an endangered species (as they have been portrayed by the media for the past millennium or so) and therefore deserve protection from being eaten.
But the truth is that, as noted by James of Japan Probe, none of the variants of dolphins being hunted in Taiji are actually endangered. Moreover, there is already a quota for drive hunting set in place by the central government and hunts like this have been carried out for centuries. So let’s get it straight, the dolphins in Taiji are in no danger of becoming extinct.
Conservation of an endangered species is a valid cause that I can agree with, but the fact is that these dolphins are simply not endangered.
Poor dolphins…
Secondly, people argue that dolphins are sentient creatures that deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. I would like to agree with that in principle, except that I eat beef and I really don’t think that cows are brainless either. I’m pretty sure a machete slash feels just as painful to a cow as compared to a dolphin. The slaughtering of dolphins, while admittedly cruel, is no different from that of cows and other similar-sized mammals. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way in hell that I’m going to become a vegetarian.
Poor McChickens…
Poor Big Mac…
Poor gazelle… Damn lions.
It’s regrettable that animals have to die to satisfy my taste buds. I’m sure one day we will all be eating some kind of mysterious meat grown in bio-vats thanks to the miracles of science. But until then, animals will just have to bear with it. I think that we can all accept this non-ideal reality.
So why should dolphins be any different? Why is it acceptable practice to kill cows? Is it because cows are less intelligent? (Shall we start killing stupid people for soylent green?) Or is it because cows are bred to die? (What an awful moral justification.)
If we are talking about net suffering, I think cows have it way worse than dolphins, and yet the poor bovinae often fall under the radars of teenage celebrities trying to fit in with the chocolate rainbow feel-good crowd.
An interview with Hayden Panettiere following the incident:
Dolphins are like “teddy bears in the water” (01:09), eh? I pity the cows for not being cute enough to garner the same attention. Perhaps they ought to consider hiring an image consultant and maybe work on a family movie or two with Walt Disney.
I do agree with Ms. Panettiere that “condemnation without investigation dooms one to everlasting ignorance” is an excellent doctrine. Therefore, I encourage her to conduct some investigation next time and find a real issue to use her celebrity influences on. Real issues such as America’s irrational love for SUVs and its asinine standards of automobile fuel efficiency. You know, things that are actually contributing to the annihilation of our planet and not just some feel-good fluff.
But I guess real issues that deserve serious attention seldom involve cute teddy bears. Aww… :(
That said, I don’t think eating dolphin is such a great idea either: mercury pollution is another genuine problem for Ms. Panettiere to consider tackling.
Well, I guess now people are going to accuse me of being an asshole. I really do love dolphins, though. I used to train tons of them in Red Alert 2 because their echo attacks are totally overpowered. :P
November 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
How many uses does an animals have? Many, but most of the uses have one common thing, that is to kill them to utilize the “use”. To eat, to make into clothing, to use as… blah blah blah…
Thus, the reasons and excuses to kill animals are aplenty, such that they can fill half of the boundless ocean of the Earth, or maybe more.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I agree with the article. What Panettiere did may have been a (questionably) good cause, but for the wrong reasons. Like how only gorgeously popular men get all the chicks, only the cuddly creatures get the media attention. Next time she wants to “raise awareness”, she should DRIVE down to her local McDonald chain store and order a few macs for take-out.
And the whole “human morality” is just a load of crap. We can put as many dogs “to sleep” as we like, but help your dying grandmother unplug her life support and you are condemned a murderer for life. Slightly irrelevant example, but it shows how society isn’t really as chivalrous as we had envisioned. It truly says something when we look at dolphins with love and affection, but turn a blind eye on the double-sized burger sitting in the fridge of every fast food chain.
On a side note, if we really want to save our world, we should hunt down every person plagued by obesity, throw them into a fitness center, and provide them a new diet plan. This way, we (the society) might stop killing innocent little beef-lings, have less heart attacks, create less dark clouds, and walk a few meters further down the block. The obese get to look (ever so slightly) more like whoever the current-most-hot-man/woman, and the world is prolonged from its imminent doom. Countless (obese) birds killed with one stone, it’s perfect. :p
November 17th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Methinks there is a difference between whales and dolphins and cows and chickens… The latter two are bred for human consumption while the former two aren’t.
If they started breeding whales and dolphins for human consumption instead of poaching them for their “scientific purposes”…
Having said that, I love Japan :).
November 17th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Let’s support her! From today onwards, we shall have algae and fungi for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
November 17th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I wouldn’t mind if they were killed to be eaten and in the least painful way possible, but from what I heard those fisherman killed them, because they thought that the dolphins would eat away their fish. That is something I can’t agree with. There should be enough fish if they didn’t overfish to begin with and blaming it on dolphins (or any other animals) is just plain wrong.
Also, I highly doubt anyone would eat dolphin meat for the reason stated in the blog entry above (mercury) and I don’t think that the Department of Health would approve the selling of poisoned meat as food.
That said, I hate media stunts like this.
November 17th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
DarkMirage: Then there are more reasons for them to kill the dolphins if they do in fact eat them, that was more than I knew but you learn something new everyday.
But on the other hand, remembering how much poaching the humans do it´s still to much and sure, I don´t know but somewhat I feel that humans do kill for leisure, or sorry, the reason they kill is for money.
And to add: do the people know the difference between the different species of dolphin? Since there are a lot of different kinds. Thus you can easily make a species go extinct just because of that :(
It feels like I´m on both sides… one part of me is willing to kill dolphins for meat, for food since that is the natural way. One part of me is against all killing since we´ve made a lot of species go extinct in the past and if people are let free they will kill everything.
November 17th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
They could actually send all the beef, pork, chicken or whatever meat to third-world countries, where it might help those people. Our planet is producing more than enough food to feed the world but yet a large portion of humans are still starving. Granted, this is a vast improvement over previous ages, but, with our current technology, it should be more than possible to feed the hungry.
The only dolphins that are endangered are mostly freshwater species, like the Yangtze Dolphins or the Indus River Dolphins; the Chinese White Dolphin, one endangered species that lives in the ocean, is in fact more threatened by pollution from sewage and pesticides than human hunting. From what I see, the Japanese hunting of Dolphins is quite strictly regulated. It would be far more prudent to say, halt the rate that coal power plants are being opened in China.
As previously stated, dolphin killing is cruel, but no more than what goes on at an abattoir. If news comes that Hayden is a true vegan AND avoids products made from the slaughter of animals, that will slightly vindicate her in my eyes; however, seeing as she carries leather handbags and wears leather shoes, I have no further comment.
That being said however, I believe most people’s health would improve with at least a semi-vegetarian diet, unless you really need the protein from meat for bodybuilding or whatever. Myself, while I don’t particularly care for terrestrial meat, I love fish.
November 18th, 2007 at 12:35 am
JonJon:
You argument brings up two interesting questions.
1. Is it okay to kill wild tunas for food? They were not bred to die either. What about wild salmons, crabs and tons of other seafood caught in the wild?
2. What is the difference between killing a wild dolphin and killing a dolphin bred in captivity that makes you think that the latter is more acceptable? I personally find this pseudo moral justification highly offensive.
I think so-called differences between cows and dolphins are just bullshit. Ultimately, it’s just the “cuteness” factor clouding people’s judgement.
That said, I am not advocating that we all eat dolphins. I just think that it’s no big deal that the Japanese eat dolphins and all the mainstream media coverage on Hayden’s “Hero-ic” efforts is giving the wrong impression to people as to what environmental conservation is really about.
November 18th, 2007 at 7:54 am
Hi DarkMirage,
Population is another issue… I’ve read somewhere that America is trying to place a 5 year ban on tuna fishing due to depleting resources. But with Salmons and crabs and mussels and shellfishes (some of which are bred in captivity), their populations are replenishable.
You may be right however with the cuteness factor, the more “human” an animal is, the less likely we’ll be eating it. With dolphins, it’s their intelligence, friendliness and rather playful nature that makes it more “human”. Which is why not many of us can stomach dogs and dolphins…
Besides, I read somewhere that dolphin meat has high levels of mercury and toxicity… not sure how valid this is, but anyone who eats dolphin meat continuously over a long term may find some interesting health issues… :D
November 19th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
There’s no need to initiate polemics. Simple explanation: Survival of the Cutest. Ethology has long acknowledged this. Except now it’s cross-species.
November 19th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I think her intentions are right, but her reasonings are way off. I’m pretty much a carnivore and I have seen animals getting slaughtered for our consumption. Its not a pretty sight, but I’ve chosen to eat them anyway.
The point is dolphns and whales are not bred for our consumption. If we continue to hunt these animals without any restrictions, there is a possibility that the ecosystem will be irreversibly destroyed in the near future.
Close monitoring and surveillance should be implemented to prevent over-hunting. The Japanese should just admit that they are hunting these animals for food and not “scientific studies”, thats just plain pretentious.
My 2-cents worth…
November 19th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
“Without restrictions”
Well then, what’s the problem? We already have quotas in place.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Not all places. Certain fishing areas in Japan still do not have quotas in place. Eg. Iki, Nagasaki Prefecture.
November 20th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
dolphins are above all other mammals because they are the only mammals other than humans who have sexual intercourse for fun/feeling good.
November 25th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
^Bonobos do too.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:39 am
They also kill! *Gasp*
December 1st, 2007 at 2:01 am
When people kill animals, (especially dolphins, since they are my favorite animal,) it makes me think of how stupid we humans can be! I mean, look at all the fishers. I know they’re “just fish”, but still, they have a life, feelings, and a body that can het hurt! Every living creature deserves a life, a right, and reason to be alive!
December 1st, 2007 at 10:40 am
What about when dolphins kill tunas?
February 14th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
14.02.08
To date there is 2,700 tones of unwanted frozen whale meat…this consists of 30% dolphin…so its a simply question really…why the f*ck the need to kill more?????????????
February 16th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Help. I can` t tell the difference between a dolphin and a fish…