Before watching The Cove I had no idea that in Taiji Japan, dolphins were being rounded up and sold to aquariums, and that those who did not fit the “flipper” profile were slaughtered for meat. The way they are rounded up and slaughtered can in no way be viewed as ethical. If the people involved thought that it was, they would not be trying so hard to cover up their actions every step of the way. They lied about the way the dolphins were killed, saying it was painless and instantaneous when in actuality they drove around in boats stabbing the dolphins at random. They also said that eating dolphin meat was part of their culture, but when Japanese citizens were interviewed, they said their culture does not eat dolphin meat, and that they had never heard of the situation in Taiji Japan. The fact the dolphin fishing industry and the Japanese government are mislabeling the meat, and selling it to citizens with high levels of mercury is also highly unethical. Even if people do not believe animals deserve rights, most believe that humans do, and the citizens of Japan are unknowingly consuming contaminated dolphin meat that could seriously harm them. If the people in Japan who are part of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji thought that what they were partaking in was in any way ethical, they would not be fighting so hard to hide and cover up what they were doing.
I know that we cannot end the killing of all animals, that different animals will be killed for food, and which animals are killed will always be argued over. However, even if we continue to kill animals for food, I believe that they at least deserve respect, and that they deserve to live out the lives they have with some comfort and decency. There are much more ethical and painless ways to raise and kill animals other than stabbing them at random until they eventually bleed to death while flailing around in their own blood. That is simply ridiculous and unacceptable.
I agree completely with your post. I can understand why the people in Taiji are killing the dolphins because I believe that they are doing this for a paycheck. As long as they are receiving that paycheck, they will continue to kill these dolphins. During the movie, these people were offered the same amount of money from the makers of this film that they would have received for killing the dolphins and they rejected it. I would assume that they did this because they have a market to sell the dolphins for food, even if the dolphin meat is labeled as whale meat. This market dies if they stop killing the dolphins. Even so, you are completely correct. I like your comment about how even if certain individuals do not believe that animals should have rights, most people would believe that humans have rights. Therefore selling meat with mercury to other humans is even worse than killing the dolphins. Their actions are two-fold and something should be done.
ReplyDeleteSo, your position is not so much one of animal rights ('they have a right to live') as animal welfare ('they should suffer less'), right? I think that's a pretty mainstream position, but I find it hard intellectually to justify, because to me declaring their welfare important grants them a sort of moral personhood, which would imply they have rights, as well. Of course, rights are a problematic issue in and of themselves- when I wrote on this (posted way late; I'd forgotten my password) I had to dwell for a long time on the issue of rights and responsibilities.
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