I originally thought about this when posting in the favorite animals thread, but in retrospec it seems out of place there.
I'm not going to go into great detail here, just wanna get a range of opinions on the matter. What do you think of the practice of whaling and Dolphining (?). There seems to me to be a great deal of evidence to suggest that these animals are just as intelligent as humans, but in a different way.
I speak primarily of Asian countries, especially Japan, that are industrialized and don't necessarily need to rely on these animals for survival. So we'll leave the Eskimos alone, for now.
Those in favor of the practice often argue that it is way of life for these people, they've been doing it for thousands of years, and it is necessary to feed their families. There's also the issue of sentience. I will focus on dolphins here because they seem to be the Einstein's of the sea, whereas whales are more like the Chris Farley's. They're pretty smart, fun-
loving, obese, and probably play comic sidekick to the dolphin's straight man routine.
From what I've learned, they have a complex range of vocalizations that we have only just begun to understand. Their biological sonar equipment is exponentially more advanced than anything we've managed to create. We're using daguerreotype essentially while they cruise around with state of the art HD equipment, likely 3d prepared.
It's been concluded that they do play for the sheer fun of it ( they even make
bubble rings and push them around), and that they seem to have complex emotions. One rogue dolphin saved a beached whale and her calf in New Zealand by first comforting them and then leading them through a narrow passage back to the open sea. This can be viewed on YouTube by searching "dolphin saves whales new Zealand", which I will try to link in a minute. It's well-known that they learn tricks exceptionally well and possibly even goad the Orca's into to bodyslamming of pulling their master underwater. In addition to these suspected homicidal instincts, they also have been observed to commit suicide by diving deep and not coming up for air. Whether this is due to depression, illness, or auto-erotic asphixiation is unknown. I've heard they're one of the few animals that has sex for pleasure alone.
As for whales, they seem to a lot bigger, not quite as intelligent, and mentally more stable. Perhaps there are documented whale suicide attempts, but I haven't done any research. They do seem to get depressed in captivity ala Free Willy.
Given the capacity to feel pain, evidently experience complex emotions, and communicate in a sophisticated manner, do you think these animals should still be killed in such a brutal fashion, or any fashion, for that matter? I don't expect them to stand up and hold a conversation to me, but it looks to me that they're possibly even more advanced than us, just in ways we can't expect to comprehend, but should respect more.
Thoughts?
I'm not going to go into great detail here, just wanna get a range of opinions on the matter. What do you think of the practice of whaling and Dolphining (?). There seems to me to be a great deal of evidence to suggest that these animals are just as intelligent as humans, but in a different way.
I speak primarily of Asian countries, especially Japan, that are industrialized and don't necessarily need to rely on these animals for survival. So we'll leave the Eskimos alone, for now.
Those in favor of the practice often argue that it is way of life for these people, they've been doing it for thousands of years, and it is necessary to feed their families. There's also the issue of sentience. I will focus on dolphins here because they seem to be the Einstein's of the sea, whereas whales are more like the Chris Farley's. They're pretty smart, fun-
loving, obese, and probably play comic sidekick to the dolphin's straight man routine.
From what I've learned, they have a complex range of vocalizations that we have only just begun to understand. Their biological sonar equipment is exponentially more advanced than anything we've managed to create. We're using daguerreotype essentially while they cruise around with state of the art HD equipment, likely 3d prepared.
It's been concluded that they do play for the sheer fun of it ( they even make
bubble rings and push them around), and that they seem to have complex emotions. One rogue dolphin saved a beached whale and her calf in New Zealand by first comforting them and then leading them through a narrow passage back to the open sea. This can be viewed on YouTube by searching "dolphin saves whales new Zealand", which I will try to link in a minute. It's well-known that they learn tricks exceptionally well and possibly even goad the Orca's into to bodyslamming of pulling their master underwater. In addition to these suspected homicidal instincts, they also have been observed to commit suicide by diving deep and not coming up for air. Whether this is due to depression, illness, or auto-erotic asphixiation is unknown. I've heard they're one of the few animals that has sex for pleasure alone.
As for whales, they seem to a lot bigger, not quite as intelligent, and mentally more stable. Perhaps there are documented whale suicide attempts, but I haven't done any research. They do seem to get depressed in captivity ala Free Willy.
Given the capacity to feel pain, evidently experience complex emotions, and communicate in a sophisticated manner, do you think these animals should still be killed in such a brutal fashion, or any fashion, for that matter? I don't expect them to stand up and hold a conversation to me, but it looks to me that they're possibly even more advanced than us, just in ways we can't expect to comprehend, but should respect more.
Thoughts?
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