Yes, given the information out there, it is clear the Resorts World IR's dolphins will either come from cruelly conducted hunts in Taiji or the Solomon Islands. Sentosa Underwater World's pink dolphins were also procured under controversy. Quite sad that Singapore is part of the demand driving such shameful behaviour.
I wrote a bit about the movie and provided some background to the movie and Taiji here and here.
I heard about this quite a while ago on the Japan Probe blog. It's stirred up quite a bit of controversy. I just don't think it's too cool to be killing something that's smarter than cats and dogs. Dolphins are highly intelligent.
Yes - just saw that information on your blog too Calsifer!
Brad - yes they are. Basing killing criteria on how intelligent an animal is does raise certain interesting questions. For example, does it make it better to kill a dumb animal? Is intelligence a good measure or is the fact that the animal is sentient more important? And if we're killing something that is smart as a child, then where do we draw the line on what is 'acceptable' to kill?
The term "intelligence", in its various manifestations, appears to be a human constructed idea to separate the humans from the non-human world. The idea is also often used to divide up the human world itself.
Re the Japanese killing dolphins, I wonder what Haruki Murakami would say. Probably something about unackowledged Japanese WWII atrocities :)
5 comments:
Yes, given the information out there, it is clear the Resorts World IR's dolphins will either come from cruelly conducted hunts in Taiji or the Solomon Islands. Sentosa Underwater World's pink dolphins were also procured under controversy. Quite sad that Singapore is part of the demand driving such shameful behaviour.
I wrote a bit about the movie and provided some background to the movie and Taiji here and here.
The Cove website: http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
The blog on savejapandolphins, founded by Ric O'Barry, the trainer featured in the movie: http://savejapandolphins.org/blog.html
I heard about this quite a while ago on the Japan Probe blog. It's stirred up quite a bit of controversy. I just don't think it's too cool to be killing something that's smarter than cats and dogs. Dolphins are highly intelligent.
Yes - just saw that information on your blog too Calsifer!
Brad - yes they are. Basing killing criteria on how intelligent an animal is does raise certain interesting questions. For example, does it make it better to kill a dumb animal? Is intelligence a good measure or is the fact that the animal is sentient more important? And if we're killing something that is smart as a child, then where do we draw the line on what is 'acceptable' to kill?
The term "intelligence", in its various manifestations, appears to be a human constructed idea to separate the humans from the non-human world. The idea is also often used to divide up the human world itself.
Re the Japanese killing dolphins, I wonder what Haruki Murakami would say. Probably something about unackowledged Japanese WWII atrocities :)
Good point yskat - and yes I wonder what he'd say too :)
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