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Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

bbc.com

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Re: Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

#2
I'm not particularly into animal rights but this does seem gratuitous to catch them in such large numbers with no-one making sure that enough have been caught. How many will definitely become food and how many will spoil/get discarded.

I guess a similar issue already exists with commercial fishing and the 1000s of animals killed as collatoral, except Dolphins being larger and more intelligent does seem much worse.

Re: Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

#4
The "part of our cultural heritage" excuse is not a positive argument, as many cultures have some pretty horrible practices in their heritage.

In fact, some cultures were successful colonists. Should they be allowed to capture the Faroe islands and enslave the locals under the guise of "cultural heritage"?

Times change, and human society on the whole must change. Cultures that refuse to change can and sometimes should be cut off from the rest of society. How well would they handle being isolated by the rest of the world, with no commerce or outside support? I suspect they would suddenly decide to leave some practices in the past.

Re: Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

#5
post #4

The "part of our cultural heritage" excuse is not a positive argument, as many cultures have some pretty horrible practices in their heritage. In fact, some cultures were successful colonists. Should they be allowed to capture the Faroe islands and enslave the locals under the guise of "cultural heritage"? Times change, and human society on the whole must change. Cultures that refuse to change can and sometimes shoul…

I agree with the argument you're making, but not with your colonist example. Dolphins, after all, are animals, not people. "Cultural heritage" argument is in a league of its own when it comes to harming humans.

Re: Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

#6
post #4

The "part of our cultural heritage" excuse is not a positive argument, as many cultures have some pretty horrible practices in their heritage. In fact, some cultures were successful colonists. Should they be allowed to capture the Faroe islands and enslave the locals under the guise of "cultural heritage"? Times change, and human society on the whole must change. Cultures that refuse to change can and sometimes shoul…

Well, every year in the US 121 million pigs are slaughtered, and they obviously live under much worse conditions. The Faroe Islands have 50000 inhabitants, so even if they did this every year it wouldn't really be very significant.

It looks graphical, but if they eat them, which I understand that they do, what is really the problem?

Re: Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

#7
post #6
post #4

The "part of our cultural heritage" excuse is not a positive argument, as many cultures have some pretty horrible practices in their heritage. In fact, some cultures were successful colonists. Should they be allowed to capture the Faroe islands and enslave the locals under the guise of "cultural heritage"? Times change, and human society on the whole must change. Cultures that refuse to change can and sometimes shoul…

Well, every year in the US 121 million pigs are slaughtered, and they obviously live under much worse conditions. The Faroe Islands have 50000 inhabitants, so even if they did this every year it wouldn't really be very significant. It looks graphical, but if they eat them, which I understand that they do, what is really the problem?

This would make some sense if we were farming dolphin. Pigs are not endangered.

Re: Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day

#9
post #4

The "part of our cultural heritage" excuse is not a positive argument, as many cultures have some pretty horrible practices in their heritage. In fact, some cultures were successful colonists. Should they be allowed to capture the Faroe islands and enslave the locals under the guise of "cultural heritage"? Times change, and human society on the whole must change. Cultures that refuse to change can and sometimes shoul…

>In fact, some cultures were successful colonists.

And those cultures are very proud to have been more technological advanced than the colonized and had the vision to conquer and spread civilization. I'd google for "Black Legend" if I were you.

>I suspect they would suddenly decide to leave some practices in the past. That's very naive, you just have to look around a bit to see that many cultures don't really care if some people in other parts of the world find them outdated.

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