how do you feel about the dolphin slaughter in japan

[Ste11aeres]

I think it's perfectly fine. It's harvesting animals. Some First World countries still do it out of community and it's very important to them. Other First and Third World peoples do it out of necessity for food. I think both are reasonable. Most people eat meat. It's horrible to watch things die and slaughter is difficult to watch as well. Every rancher and farmer I have met has told me they don't enjoy killing, they know it's necessary. Those people take very good care of their animals.

Animals eat each other and usually while they are alive. When I was young I was only feet away seeing a group of coyotes take a deer. It scarred me seeing it. But the coyotes need to eat and have children too. It's all complicated. Everybody is against cruelty to animals. It doesn't mean we can't harvest them, just as animals harvest others. Remember, dolphins eat fish alive every day they live. They are killing machines. I haven't heard someone complain about the suffering of the fish that are terrified by groups of dolphins as they are herded in to tighter and tighter groups until they are taken alive while terrified.

I think we identify with dolphins more, we empathize more, so it's harder to see them frightened into a corral and butchered with knives but the killers are killing the killers. Then again, take dolphins out of the life cycle and their prey species would suffer terribly. I wish it were a softer world, I don't think it's meant to work that way though.

I picture again and again bears fishing upstream for salmon and pulling their skin off and eating it while the salmon alive, struggle. Horrible to see.

First of all, I don't have a problem with killing animals in order to eat them. However, if you have carefully read the article, you will have noticed that there are serious health problems with eating dolphins-a high risk of mercury poisoning. So it's not even benefitting humans; It's harming humans.

 

[grommet]

I am providing references to articles that suggest mercury levels in fish are safe for human consumption. The Seychelles study has been peer reviewed by many and the general consensus among scientists is that it is not a danger to consume even large amounts of fish in regards to mercury toxicity. All things should be continued to be studied but this is the current thinking.

Mercury sounds scary and in vapor form methyl mercury is immediately toxic and eventually fatal to most people - liver damage, brain damage, cancer.

I am against killing animals, even to eat them because I don't want any suffering but I understand the necessity and once even tried killing and butchering an animal. I felt it would make me honest since I ate animals other people were killing for me. In the end, I could not do it and I spoke to a friend who is a hunter and he told me it was okay, not everyone was built to kill. I don't like the dolphin slaughter, it is horrible but I cannot understand singling out dolphins for special compassion. At this point with the available information, I also cannot see eating dolphins as risky because of mercury levels. I am open to new evidence.

I love animals. I grew up caring for five dogs and my close friend, a duck I raised from just after birth. I eat chicken. I would eat dog if it were available and yesterday I had frog with my lunch, a Cantonese (Toishinese) traditional dish that goes back more than a thousand years.

I am skeptical of not eating meat for health reasons as the science so far does not bear out that it is bad for human health. Some people cannot eat large amounts of cholesterol or saturated fats because of genetic conditions common in their families. I have however a friend wh eats a diet very high in both of those and has a healthy hears and an overall cholesterol of 125, an amazing number.

The OP I thought was asking for opinions on the dolphin hunt. I think we are now arguing the merits and morality. A fair thing to do but not the same as asking for my opinion. I don't want to argue the matter but with what seems to me to be a transition to that and your mentioning of the theory of mercury in animals as a health danger to humans I wanted to speak up.

Seychelles references

"We look at the Seychelles people as a sentinel population," says pediatric neurologist Gary Myers, who examined the children. "If somebody who eats fish twice a day does not show effects from mercury exposure, it's unlikely that somebody who eats fish twice a week will be affected. And the fish they eat in the Seychelles contains the same amount of mercury as fish sold at supermarkets and eaten in the United States."

Adds first author Philip Davidson, an expert on developmental disabilities who designed a battery of the most sophisticated tests available to examine the children: "What we found in the Seychelles is applicable to every woman, every man, and every child around the world who eats ocean fish." Mercury Exposure and Fish

No Detectable Risk From Mercury In Seafood, Study Shows
No Detectable Risk From Mercury In Seafood, Study Shows -- ScienceDaily

Seychelles Child Development Study
...concluded that there is no evidence that methylmercury consumption results in an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders...
Seychelles Child Development Study - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First of all, I don't have a problem with killing animals in order to eat them. However, if you have carefully read the article, you will have noticed that there are serious health problems with eating dolphins-a high risk of mercury poisoning. So it's not even benefitting humans; It's harming humans.

 

[zurb]

I am providing references to articles that suggest mercury levels in fish are safe for human consumption. ... it is not a danger to consume even large amounts of fish in regards to mercury toxicity.

Whatever the food chain, toxin concentrations increase the higher you go. This is true in the sea as well as on land. There is a huge difference between eating dolphins at the top of the food chain to filter feeders or even fish at the low end!

 

[grommet]

I don't know if what you are saying is true. Still, if it is, it's still important to know what is toxic (damaging) to the human body. Ultra-violet light is toxic, as is lead, arsenic and not being silly - water. I suggest the question becomes, is the form of mercury found in sea animals toxic when these animals are eaten by people. As I am informed at this point, the consensus is no. Doctors and scientists who are not doctors have a common comment on poison, "What is poison? That's not the question because anything can be toxic, even water. It's about levels." In other words, anything in the proper amount, is toxic.

Also, in some food chains, toxins are in fact made safe as they are broken down in to non-toxic forms or are kept in parts such as only the fatty tissue or liver that keep the remaining flesh of the animal safe to eat. Consider the blowfish used in specialized sushi.

In desert training some Special Forces operators are known to concoct a disgusting beverage to prevent cramping - an entire paper packet of salt poured in to a bottle of water. Terrible to taste. The results are remarkable however as those who have done it do attest.

Podophyllin resin is a deadly poison if ingested. It will kill you. Used topically it safely treats genital warts. Aspirin certainly can kill but in lower doses ..

I hate the dolphin slaughter. It's brutal. I am not against it. I have seen animals killed much more humanely, in fact with the animal seeming to have no awareness of even stress in the moment. Pre-historic peoples ran buffalo off cliffs and harvested their carcasses. Dolphins herd fish in to tight groups to harvest them. In the United Kingdom, present day, an animal must be unconscious for several seconds during the killing. This is accomplished by electric shock causing grand mal seizures. The animal is processed so quickly that it needs to be cooled right away because of the remaining body heat.

I don't like seeing anything die, I do eat meat. As I understand the current best science regarding mercury in fish is that it is not a danger to humans.

I have seen humane butchering. The skill and quickness of those butchers is remarkable. I think the dolphin slaughter just makes us sad and we want a reason to stop it. It makes me terribly distressed to see those intelligent animals killed this way but, I do support harvesting animals. What I really want, and I hope this does not sound silly because I mean it, is for the food replicators used in Star Trek TNG to exist. I do understand that the growing of meat is something happening now and I would be glad to eat it. If it is safe and tastes as good, I would eat it. If it was safe and didn't taste as good I would gladly give up slaughtered meat and still eat the grown. But I don't think the world would follow me and in any nation that depends on harvesting animals from the sea or land, they would think me crazy for not simply taking the animals near them that for generations their people have eaten.

Whatever the food chain, toxin concentrations increase the higher you go. This is true in the sea as well as on land. There is a huge difference between eating dolphins at the top of the food chain to filter feeders or even fish at the low end!

 

[Jono]

I thought I would post about this topic. Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji this page would tell you about it. post after you read the page.

I think it's appalling. Thankfully, even some Japanese people are getting upset by it.

 

[musclecarman]

heres a link for more facts 11 Facts about Dolphin Hunts | DoSomething.org | America's largest organization for youth volunteering opportunities, with 2,700,000 members and counting