416
2010-04-12
(discuss.online)
Whales are the farmers of the sea. They fertilize the open oceans and produce more food than they eat. Especially the biggest ones, like the fin whales Japan has decided to hunt again. So if you like sea food, maybe don't kill the whales.
If you eat basically any form of meat, I have some bad news for you...
There's whale meat in my steak!?
I do give deer hunting a pass because they're overpopulated in places (because humans wiped out their native predators).
Feel free to try and change my mind so I can wipe that off my ever-shrinking personal "ethically ok to eat meats" list. For all I know this is one of those lies I was raised with that I've not examined since childhood. Edit: context is in Kentucky, USA 20 years ago. I don't know about deer populations elsewhere and elsewhen.
Former vegan, current vegetarian here.
Dont stop hunting, please. Humans did a phenomenal job of ensuring a required hunting season for deer by wiping out all the natural predators, now without them we have to have culls. If you participate in said culls, PLEASE eat the meat, use the pelt, give the antlers to your dog. We've forced ourselves into a position where some of us MUST take up the mantle of predator. If you choose to, just be responsible with the carcass so it didn't die for no good reason.
To add a wrinkle: there's now "farmed deer". It's supposedly more environmentally friendly than farmed cow, but I don't like it because •vague feelings I've not fully examined•.
So don't assume any venison you find in the grocery store was hunted.
Vague feelings? I think your feelings are pretty spot-on, farming an animal whose population is already excessive in the wild is bizarre.
Wild deer are more environmentally friendly than farmed deer.
The feelings are vague because I can't put them confidently into words, but your explanation resonates.
Wow, thanks, I hate it!
Only time I've eaten meat in the past ~30 years was when I ate some invasive fish that had been caught in a killathon to restore native habitat. Not that it's my role to "give you a pass," but I certainly do in this case!
Apparently there's spear fisherfolk in Florida that kill invasive lionfish and provide them to local restaurants. I'm all for killing and eating invasive species.
That's exactly what I ate :)
Or drink milk. Vegetarians don't get a pass.
I only drink polar bear milk. I find the chalky cod liver oil taste delightful.
I mean yes, but what do you think happens to regular fish
Many of us are against that too. Whales just happen to be exceedingly intelligent and capable of forming powerful emotional bonds
So are pigs.
Counterpoint: bacon
It's genuinely not nearly as good as people like to believe. It's not even in the top 10 pig products.
Farm animals have it even worse
Well usually it's more injure the child so mom stays close then murder both.
Tried making a joke here before reading more about it and now I regret the joke so I edited this out.
The human experience is built on cruelty.
It's okay, it's for scientific research !
I know it's not, it's just the garbage excuse they've been using for decades
Used to be there, now I just keep sharing the above link 🤷♂️
This is why "/s" exists
I don't mean to be that guy but, whales are delicious. And you get approx 3500kg of meat (low estimate) from a minke whale, whereas you'll get about 75kg from a commercially farmed pig. Meaning you have to kill 46 pigs to get the same amount of meat as 1 whale.
Both pigs and whales are intelligent and emotionally developed animals. Whales live free and normal lives up until the point of their harpooning, whereas pigs are kept in filthy overcrowded conditions and kept alive with antibiotics because they wouldn't last long without them. They are of course eventually killed, but unlike cattle they don't get a quick death from a bolt gun to the head. No pigs are asphyxiated with carbon dioxide. They spend the last moments of their tortured existence choking to death.
That doesn't take into account the massive environmental impact of large pig farms. Because pigs eat more nitrogen rich food than other farm animals, their feces leads to over nitrification of anything downstream and eutrophication of waterways.
So if you are sitting there chomping a bacon sandwich and bitching and moaning about whaling, take a long hard look in the mirror, because the pig farming you support is immeasurably worse both ethically and environmentally.
I get the point you're trying to make but if people ate whale the same way we ate pig the entire ocean ecosystem would have collapsed by now.
Not to mention almost all whale species are on their way to being endangered right now, while factory farmed pigs aren't.
Maybe just go with the line all meat is murder rather bacon is worse then whale flesh lmao.
I don't have a problem with people eating meat. I eat meat. I just don't like the way it's farmed what I'd propose is a largely vegetarian diet punctuated by fish or wild meat every so often. Like fish twice a week and venison on Sunday or something. As for whale, it's not really commonly eaten in many places and as long as people don't take too many, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
We did almost hunt whales to extinction, but it wasn’t meat we were hunting for, it was their oily fat.
Exactly, most people don't actually like it that much.
Harm free cultured meat isn't murder and it's meat
I don't think harm free cultured meat exists yet.
Does this count as not existing?
I don't eat pork, really.
But it's not because I considered pigs that smart, it's just a cruel practice, industrial farming. I'm fine with them being farmed if there's proper regulation.
I do eat deer, horse and reindeer among other things as well. Less so beef, or try to at least.
So I guess if you're talking about the whaling of the common minke whale which isn't a threatened species at the moment, and I'd look into the regulation and practices, I guess I'd be fine with eating some.
Although I would still attribute vastly higher intelligence to whales than deer and pigs. I mean, it's hard to measure, but pigs eat their own babies which they kill by accident. That's why they have like a dozen. And prey animals like deer are usually kinda frantic and not seemingly that smart.
Whereas whales, we don't even know how intelligent they are, but some species are definitely super intelligent and the communication they use is complex af.
Still, can't say you're wrong in your points, as I often make the same points for deer, but they breed kinda lot and they honestly have to be kept in check so they don't ruin environments whereas I'm pretty sure whales aren't considered pests anywhere? I mean, I'm not at all sure, but I am guessing. There's those ship destroying ones, but that seems targeted against humans and not them generally destroying their environment.
Poor whales. It's better to eat the children, that's why civilized people eat lamb and chicken.
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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