Humane Society calls for Rudd to support anti-whaling (and send the Navy)

[Barrett808]

Source: Live News

The Humane Society International is calling on Kevin Rudd to send the Navy to protect the Australian whale sanctuary in Antarctica.

HSI says the incoming Labor government had gained power promising action against whaling and Mr Rudd must dispatch an Australian vessel immediately.

Humane Society director Michael Kennedy says a Japanese whaling company's on its way to the sanctuary, planning to harpoon over a thousand whales within weeks.

The Japanese fleet is targeting an extra 50 humpback whales on top of its permits to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

Read more: http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2007/11/28/Calls_for_Ru...

[Tyler Durden]

1. K & R.

[NCarolinawoman]

2. If Rudd sends the Navy, he will be my new hero.

I'm really surprised that the Japanese are still into this horrible stuff.

Of course, Americans have got to get over their stupid love affair with factory farms, as well. )(

[Hand]

3. "Japanese whaler! This is the Royal Australian Navy! Heave to or I will open fire."

Yep, I like the sound of that.

[boricua79]

4. can someone explain to me the Japanese rational for whaling?

is it cultural tradition? Is it commerce related?

[Hand]

5. Hmm...

It's a little of both. Officially, it's "scientific research", which everyone knows is BS. To many Japanese, it's based on the "cultural tradition" idea--they've always eaten whale meat and don't want to stop, depleted populations and clear evidence that these are highly intelligent mammalian beings notwithstanding.

There's some argument that whale provides a protein source that is otherwise unavailable, but nobody's particularly buying that. It's true for the isolated Inuit people in the high Arctic, who take a few whales a year. It's not true for a highly industrialized, technologically advanced nation at the crossroads of Asia, and doesn't justify taking thousands of whales a year.

As to commerce, well... somebody makes money off this, and some fishers are employed in the whale hunt, but I doubt that the Japanese economy would collapse without whaling. I think that it's basically just sheer stubbornness and racial pride, which is the big Japanese neurosis (for the record, I'm 50% Japanese-American); they're as bad that way as the British were in their heyday (and somewhat still are).

I'd call it the Japanese equivalent of Chimpy's obstructionism on global warming (also Steve Harper's, our asshat Canadian prime minister). There's no rational or intelligent explanation; it's just what they do. A plague on all their houses.

[boricua79]

6. in that case, apply all the pressure needed

AN END TO WHALING!