You do it. I'll take my pig wrapped, without the squeal.

I agree, which may be why no one takes me hunting anymore....

I hate whale hunting but at least they are doing it on their own shoreline. The Japanese have successfully done scientific research so well that there are not enough in their home waters so they roam the world slaughtering whales in other countries waters where they've been protected and used for tourism.
At christmas the brewery in Adelaide lights up it's christmas display and the joke there was the Japanese only wanted to buy the brewery because it has a whale close to shore.
regards

crowbar vs whale.....unjust
High powered rifle vs Deer....Sport?

Dont get me wrong, I like meat as much as anybody, but go hunt like a man, or buy your meat at Publix, but dont tell me that a rifle is fair to the animal...

Flame retardant suit applied, Im ready

Not fair, but if used skillfully, far more humane.

Who is talking about fair? For me it is about ending lives with as little stress and pain as possible for the animals.

So, Dave, what would you consider fair? I've seen deer starve from not enough vegitation to eat in thier area. It's a very brutal death. Not to mention drawn out suffering. Also seen them (and Elk) die from Chronic Wastings Disease. Mother nature is far more cruel than a well placed shot from a modern firearm. Maybe you could talk to them and get them to OD on sleeping pills or something, that would be a much more pleasant way for them to die.

BTW, I usually hunt elk every year in Utah and speak from firsthand experience. Hunting is a vital part of wildlife management. Our populations of Ungulates (deer, elk and moose)are in far better shape now then they were at the turn of the century. Someone who sees a dead deer with a bullet hole in it that is heading to the freezer and thinks that it's unfair is short sighted and cannot (or will not) see the whole picture. I also must say that I'm pretty fond of whales and didn't like the pictures much but the pictures probably don't tell the whole story, so I will not judge.

"Hunting is a vital part of wildlife management."

The lack of revenue from hunters is becoming a matter of concern here. The problem stems both from bad PR and loss of hunting lands.

Here, the whitetail deer suffers from cyclical shortages of forage, but also from parasites. When they are unable to reach high ground, and their hooves soften in standing water, they founder and die.

http://www.cwd-info.org/index.php/fuseaction/sponsors.main

I don't hunt anymore, but I'm certainly glad that others do.

I think with animals displaying the kind of consciousness that the Dolphin and whale species show there is merit in special consideration for the way death is handled. However, the animal species, including ourselves are fascinating in that the body reacts in times of this sort of stress with it's own drugs and ways of mitigating the horror. But that is what it is, horror. As my brother used to say.
"Welcome to Planet Pain, where everything on it is eating something else."
We might also remember that Pilot Whales have a habit of stranding themselves and dying in large numbers. There is an image of one of the slaughter-men slipping near a dying animal and I think these guys probably know how to kill the beasts fast for their own safety.

Finally I am an omnivore and I relish meat and believe it has most essential elements for my healthy survival. I live in a nation where I think the hardships on the animals we slaughter are mitigated as much as is possible.
I am thankful I do not have to hunt my own as I am happy I do not have to make my own car. But is the meat was not there I would go out and kill it myself. I would get used to it and I would be a very unpleasant chap if someone else tries to stop me.
I can't believe these people killing this resource are any different.

Do you not know how many sheep are exported out of NZ every year to the Islamic world to be brutally traditionally slaughtered?
A LOT, and I dont think those sheep would agree with you.

Luckily the Animal Rights groups were able to stop a lot of live exports so that Australian & NZ efforts to train the Islamic world in humane animal treatment were stopped. Now the Islamic world can get on with doing it the traditional way.

Some facts :
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/w/whale-killing-denmark.htm
http://www.whaling.fo/nammco99whalingandanimal.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3104494.stm
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/pilotwhale_longfinned.htm

That meat is not exactly good for your health. These ppl use it for their own consumption, other countries won't usually import it because it has high levels of mercury in it, and for other reasons as well.

People have different sensitivity to this kind of stuff, granted. People need to feed themselves (better through local resources). Huge amounts of food are disposed off in parts of the world while in other places people starve to death. Supposedly we evolved and should have better understanding and respect for nature. That doesn't mean we are supposed to only eat potatoes.

If all we do in our lifetime is spreading pain to others, can it still be called intelligent life ? Trying to minimize that pain maybe called intelligent.
Just the way I see it.

This may seem disgusting to us as a "civilized" society, but as your link there http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/w/whale-killing-denmark.htm states, every part of the animal is used, wasting nothing. Nothing is exported an it is all consumed by the natives. I can't fault this behavior now that I know more about it. Read the article and see if ya'll don't agree. If not...to each his own, I say. It's certainly not as reprehensible practice as what the Japanese whaling/shark industries practice or what the White Man did to the buffalo. In both of those cases, most of the animal is wasted.

i agree that everyone should see this stuff

- legislation should force mandatory school　visits to slaughter houses for kids who eat meat

- graduating from high school should at least require wringing a chickens neck, plucking it and cooking it over an open fire, vegetarians to grow a crop of lentils in their final year

- KFC should have a few dead rubber chickens hanging from the ceilings above the register

- entering MacDonalds you should see a life sized butchered cow carcass hanging from a meat hook

for far too long people have been happy to ignore the realities of humans being omnivores with meat cutting teeth

oh and while we are on the "point out the bleeding obvious" crusade

- death penalty executions should be televised

We are sailors. Its us in harmony with nature. We probably understand this more than most powerboaters and the regular population. My only point is the rifle seems like cheating to me(IMHO).

BTW This whale thing is a slaughter, not a hunt.

Country kids do see this stuff erice, my kids have seen me stretch a sheeps head back, cut its throat and push its head off its backbone in one action dispatching it as quickly and painlessly as possible. It seems brutal when you write it down but thats real life. Thats where our food comes from! The people in the original post use every part of the resource they are harvesting from their local environment, they have probably managed that resourse for hundreds of years and done a good job of it by the look of it. They just need to be taught how to dispatch the animal more humanely, once they learn how to shoot the whales and tow them in efficiently they could probably wipe out the population in no time at all. My guess is the local Govt sets restraints on what they can use to limit the harvest. The Japanese by contrast wiped out their local population and roam the world looking for dog meat.

And the reason for this is what?

The GOOD part about shipping a million sheep/year from OZ to the Middle East--- is that the Arabs eat what they are used to-- They just love the oldest, toughest, grottiest sheep!

Ain't life great- some of the time?