Quote:
Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
One problem with this situation is that 20% of the whales did *not* die instantaneously. I'm not sure if lack of moving or response to stimuli definitely means these whales were unconscious...and it troubles me that people persist in killing whales *not knowing* for sure if they are unconscious or not. By law, land mammals (in the U.S.) are supposed to be knocked unconscious before they are killed; anything less than that is considered inhumane. So, by that definition I consider how whales are killed--such that some may be conscious of the pain and trauma--to be inhumane.
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I suppose I don't think of it as inhumane because I don't think that
not causing harm to animals is particularly humane, but ..
For me, the main criticism towards whaling is when it threatens species. I read your arguments that whaling causes pain and coming from a vegan, that's hard to argue with. It does and so using that to justify that it's wrong makes sense! I just think it's slightly ridiculous how people make whaling a target for moral complaints and controversy when compared to some 1000 minke whales each year, there are many millions of cattle, pigs and chickens that suffer as well. Some of the videos posted in this thread show in a very visually disturbing way that not all animals are dead when they are slaughtered. Some places, I'm sure the instant death statistics are not much better than they are for the whales. Also, it's not just the killing which hurts them either. Unlike the whales - cattle, pigs and chickens are often forced to live in crowded and/or tight spaces, a lot of them get hurt during transport, many spend most of their lives living in their own fecal matter, some are bred so that they have chronic pains or handicaps - for example the broiler chickens we eat which become so fat their legs can't even support their own weight. Some of them probably spend their entire short lives in misery only to be put on our dinner plates.
And when you think about how much meat you get from one minke whale .. Comparatively, you'd have to keep and kill thousands of chickens to get the same amount of meat. If you think utilitaristically about the "amount" of suffering you get per pound of meat and make comparisons, I'm sure whaling - at least the kind done with explosive harpoons - comes out pretty good.
Of course to you, all this is wrong so then it's just a matter of
how wrong it is .. I'd like to see what an anti-whaling meat eater would think, but I guess there may not be any.
