Sorry, you cannot justify that with any logic. Dolphins are much more intelligent than other animals and have a brain larger than our own. Plus these animals are made to suffer slowly as they are killed. No matter what the animal is, not one of them should suffer needlessly to fill the bellies of people. I don't care about culture. Wrong is wrong. I don't think you are going to see deer or cows morning the death of their family members. Perhaps they do, but none show it to the extent of a dolphin. It is just plain cruel and unnecessary. What they don't seem to care about is the fact that the more top level predators they kill, the worse the fishing will get. Perhaps their fishing practices have already ruined the fishing grounds there. I spent 2 years in Korea and I saw how the lack of respect for the environment has impacted the wildlife there. Japan is no different.

I sure wish I would not have viewed the video with my wife in the room. That is so wrong in every way I can imagine.

I understand the fact that this is part of their culture and their way of life, and aggree that it is wrong to judge them for it. However that is sick no matter how you put it. At least we try to be humane. Almost no thought at all has been put into their methods of slaughter except efficiency. Also, maybee their culture needs to drop their desires for products that are not needed. Most of those packages that were shown at the end of the clip did not look like food items but rather aphrodeziacs and erbal (except with dolphins) type stuff. Last I checked, nobody really needs any of that to live. If they were harvesting flipper strictly for food then I would say " Who are we to judge" but that culture calls for alot of un-needed ****. Dont get me wrong, I know that the U.S. has its problems, but try and find a knock against us as loud as that. If they are harvesting for food then I say that they should just find a method of killing that is less disrespectfull to such an extrordinary animal and just a tad bit less agonizing.

Txaggie08 said
"Between that, and the fact that the manner of there butchering method is so far out line..... If you butcher and animal you kill it quickly, especialy a mammal, and especialy one as intelligent as a dolphin."
pretty much sums up my feeling on it too, i hunt as well as fish but i could never leave any animal to suffer slow like that.

Count on the Japanese to overharvest their own - and everyone else's - waters. There's the real objection.

I don't know what is worse....the way the dolphins were being killed or the replies posted in this thread 'understanding' the culture.

All this is very long and kind of preachy but please bear with me, I will make my point. Read what I say and if it changes your mind or just introduces a �maybe�, good, if not I will still fish with you. I have been working on this response for days.

First of all, please do not compare me to any of those PETA airheads, I am a meat hunter and fisherman. I�m 53 years old and I have been hunting and fishing since as long as I can remember. I am also an avid conservationist and I believe that although God gives us dominion over all things that walk, swim, and fly, there is a certain responsibility that comes with that authority. As sportsmen we do not have carte blanch to kill animals indiscriminately and inhumanely.

I remember a school lesson teaching me that the division between human and animals was the use of tools. Man used tools and animals didn�t. Then somebody discovered some chimpanzees using stalks of grass to get termites. And they teach their offspring to use tools. One theory down.

Next I remember that the division was language; humans used language, and animals did not. KoKo (the signing gorilla) killed that theory. Now the scientists have discovered that they can teach chimpanzees to sign and then the chimpanzees can teach some words to their offspring. Two theories down. Maybe 3.

The latest theory is the �self-awareness� theory. Animals that can recognize themselves in their reflection in a mirror are �self-aware� and therefore exhibit �human� traits. Animals that cannot are not human. Hogwash.

Between 1976 and 1978 I worked at the Texas Dept of Mental Health and Retardation at the Austin State School as a direct childcare provider for mentally challenged children and young adults. I watched a dorm full of profoundly retarded children and tried to keep them from killing themselves or anybody else. Alvin was a profoundly autistic child and did could not always recognize himself in a mirror. He was a very sweet being, drawn into his own private world and very little could draw him out. But he liked it when (in moments of no stress) I would lightly tease him. I would present some sort of friendly verbal challenge and he would look into my eyes and smile like an angel. Then he would babble some sort of non-sense and start �tweeking� his fingers.

******* At this point I am proclaiming an oxymoron position *****************
******* The PETA people (whom I despise) might applaud *****************
******* Aggies and regular folk (whom I love) may find this difficult **********
******* Read this at your own discretion ********************************

There are four (maybe 5) animals that we know can recognize themselves in a reflection in a mirror; us (humans), chimpanzees, great apes (gorillas), and porpoises, dolphins, and whales (only occasionally but sometimes). I believe that if we had better ways to test dolphins and whales the confusion would end and there would be 5 animals who are self-aware.

So if I killed an ape or dolphin, I believe I would be killing an animal that exhibits higher mental capacity than Alvin (whom I truly believe was an angel). Maybe it�s not murder (with a capital M) but I believe that it is probably murder (with a little m). As for everyone who is wagging the �don�t judge other cultures� flag, I say �bite my shorts�. If the Nazis were gassing all the retards and queers would you still be singing the same song? How far is it between the retards and the chimps? A little, maybe a middle, but not completely different.

i think its not right because dolphins are mamals. so are we

Apparantly elephants are self aware as well. Some zoo in New York just documented it.

I just want to know what dolphin meat taste like. My guess, "chicken"

Dolphin meat would not taste like chicken. It would taste like Merganser (greasy herring).

sounds tasty. Kinda like an enchillada