Japan's Whale of a Problem
"Culture or tradition or taste or habit - they don't justify our belief that we can use them as we wish because they are not one of us."
-Sandra Higgins
Two Steps Back
Japan announced in late June that they would resume whaling again after pulling out of the International Whaling Commission. They plan to slaughter about 400 whales per year of three different species in order to sell the flesh as food. It should be noted though that Japan never really gave up whaling, using a loophole to continue the murder by citing it as scientific research. The international community and Japanese animal rights groups are, understandably, furious with this decision.
Traditions
For this post, I read several articles detailing both the positive and negative sides of Japanese whaling. Of course, there are no positives to this, but the Japanese politicians and citizens that are excited about this cite only one real reason: tradition. Not economics or need. It's all about them, their traditions, their palate preferences, their cultural pride. Does that justify it? Of course not, but don't we also use these same excuses to do similar things to other animals?
“We’ve done nothing wrong, and we have no plans to stop.... We’re continuing whale hunts that began over 400 years ago. If this generation ended them, we would live with the shame forever.”
-Yoshifumi Kai,
Head of the Japan Small-Type Whaling Association
400 vs. 2,700,000,000
Dairy farmers, whether they're first-generation or grew up milking cows on their great-grandfather's farm, are still killing calves, beating mothers, and mutilating them in various ways. Why isn't anyone up in arms about that? There are dozens of millions of cows slaughtered every year, but we're far more concerned with people on the other side of the world killing a few hundred whales. If we do want to continue to eat animals, isn't it whales that we should be killing? A whale is much bigger and can feed far more people than a cow, chicken, or salmon.
Global Shame
Now, I'm not suggesting that whaling is acceptable or commendable, no matter the reason. All forms of animal cruelty are wrong, and I was incredibly disappointed and disheartened when I heard this news. In the quote above, Yoshifumi Kai said that this generation would feel shameful if they had ended the slaughter of whales. Well, whenever it does end - whether that be because they have killed all the whales, the whales starve to death because we've killed all the other fish, or they choose compassion over tradition - they will be known as the shameful generation that had the opportunity to end the violence but chose to continue. They don't have to worry about being shamed in the future; it's happening now.
be conscious, be kind, be vegan