dolphins, cigars, books, and swans

Strange enough topic title?
Yesterday was a good enough day. Work wasn't any busier than usual, and the weather is finally starting to look like Spring. This entry may end up getting split into multiple entries depending on how long I end up babbling. First, I'll explain the title. My boss and I had an interesting conversation about the Japanese killing and eating dolphins and whales. After work, I took a stroll in the park and smoked a cigar. I eventually parked myself on a bench, opened up the book I was reading while enjoying the view of swans floating around in a small pond.
I suppose I could start off with a bit of background just so people can understand where my point of view may come from. I'm not a vegetarian, vegan, or any other type of person that thinks killing animals is bad "just because." I was raised omnivorous, and was taught the difference between being thankful for my food and caring about it. I don't think it's possible to care about your food. It's basically the reason I don't eat my Sun Conure. While I'm sure he'd be delicious in a stew, I love the little poop machine. Unless I'm placed in an unlikely situation where my only two choices are eat him or die, I'll continue to find other sources of sustenance. Anyway, I'll end this here b/c the philosophy of why I eat what I eat could rival most novels in length. Suffice to say, I don't tell anyone what diets they should maintain (unless I'm asked of my opinion), and I don't want anyone telling me what diet I should maintain. Friendly debates are always welcome.
On to the dolphins, yes? Japan is under scrutiny again. This time it's not about their treatment of women or their taste in "adult" cartoons. It's about how they like to eat sea-dwelling mammals. I'm going to try to describe the conversation between my boss and I as much as possible. In order to do that, however, I maybe have to provide some history into the subject which anyone reading may already know, or even know more about than I. Now, I'd like to point out that dolphin and whale consumption is not a new trend in Japan. The only reason people are up in arms about it is b/c of a documentary with an agenda decided to tell us all about it. Now, all the flipper lovers are screaming about animal rights and how terrible Japan is for eating such "majestic" creatures. Thankfully, there's actual science behind why we shouldn't eat dolphins and whales. The animal rights groups, unfortunately, don't help the cause by screaming "just because." One of the other things we discussed is this idea of animal rights. Animals are one thing. Food is another. Food, really, only has one right - to eventually be eaten. Tomatoes are grown to be eaten. Chickens are raised to be eaten. And so on and so forth. If I throw an animal rights activist into the jungle, none of its hungry, carnivorous dwellers will think about human rights before mealtime. We also discussed the agenda of the documentary. While there are many good arguments presented (such as mercury levels and intelligence), there seems to be another agenda behind it. We didn't really go into agendas much, just mostly about how hidden agendas stink. The documentary mentions that there is little opposition from the Japanese people to stop all this dolphin hunting. I'm not sure how many people realize it's only one place in Japan that still does this. I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the documentary. The Japanese government has also said they do it as form of "pest control." Now, the animal rights people would never view the majestic dolphin as a pest. When they're eating your fish and making it difficult to feed your town, your viewpoint may change. If you search hard enough, you'll find plenty of articles of Japanese people trying to bring attention to the dangers of consuming dolphin meat and how they should end the dolphin killings. On the documentary website, it mentions that the first time Japanese fisherman admitted that dolphin hunting was mainly for pest-control was in 2004. I wonder how I managed to find a report from the 70's that spoke about the same thing. The biggest problem seems to actually be education. As is the case most times when a government knows it is doing something that will not be accepted by the mass public, they hide it. We don't learn about most scandals until after the fact. Perhaps getting the news across Japan will inspire more Japanese to show their displeasure. Simply insulting them won't help the cause. Using words/expressions like "slaughter", "genocide", "thrashing about", "filling the air with their screams", etc doesn't help educate anybody. It only freaks people out and insults a population by equating them with brutal murderers. The internet is a powerful tool. We went on about all the misinformed people and comments we found. As a conclusion, I'd like to point out that we didn't make any decisions as to the "right or wrongness" of it. We just discussed the information, misinformation, and various ideas/arguments made by different people.
I'm going to stop this entry for now. I'll continue in a separate entry as I find the time to write.