humanity
The word humane has very positive connotations. People refer to repression and torture as being inhumane practises of evil governments. But, after seeing at the way people treat animals I don't think we can use that word in a positive way. I know some people will, at this point, stop reading so as not to hear yet another tree-hugger talk/write about our relationship to the world around us. But I have just seen something that made me feel sick. First off, I have to say that I like to eat meat. I like to eat fish. I like chicken eggs for breakfast.
So, I am a hypocrite, to some degree. I know the torture that fish must go through before finally suffocating in the hold of a ship. I know about the small pens in which chickens and milking cows are kept all their life. But for some reason those things do not bother me all that much. I don't know why. It's irrational, but it's the truth of my hypocrisy and I will face the music in the next life.
Today I saw a video of the way dolphins are treated in a village in Japan. If you can stomach it, you can see it here: http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin but do think twice before watching it and I would not suggest showing it to young children. It got me to thinking that we really aren't that far from the beasts themselves sometimes. We do this kind of thing to each other from time to time, as well. I am absolutely sure that if crabs were our size we would not be able to swim in the ocean or go to the beach. they would rip us apart with the same kind of apathy shown by these Japanese people (I can't call them fishermen if they're not catching fish).
This was a bit of a shock. I suppose that killing something as big as a whale or dolphin is more of a gruesome than slaughtering thousands of tons of herring in a single net (which is what happens to the herring). But the act of such destruction seems to me to be the same no matter what organism is the subject of the attack. I don't really understand why it is, then that I am far more affected by the sight of dolphins flopping about bleeding to death when it doesn't bother me so much to watch a mackerel that I just caught flopping on the deck. It should be the same, but for some reason it's completely different. Why do you suppose that is?
Back to work...
So, I am a hypocrite, to some degree. I know the torture that fish must go through before finally suffocating in the hold of a ship. I know about the small pens in which chickens and milking cows are kept all their life. But for some reason those things do not bother me all that much. I don't know why. It's irrational, but it's the truth of my hypocrisy and I will face the music in the next life.
Today I saw a video of the way dolphins are treated in a village in Japan. If you can stomach it, you can see it here: http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin but do think twice before watching it and I would not suggest showing it to young children. It got me to thinking that we really aren't that far from the beasts themselves sometimes. We do this kind of thing to each other from time to time, as well. I am absolutely sure that if crabs were our size we would not be able to swim in the ocean or go to the beach. they would rip us apart with the same kind of apathy shown by these Japanese people (I can't call them fishermen if they're not catching fish).
This was a bit of a shock. I suppose that killing something as big as a whale or dolphin is more of a gruesome than slaughtering thousands of tons of herring in a single net (which is what happens to the herring). But the act of such destruction seems to me to be the same no matter what organism is the subject of the attack. I don't really understand why it is, then that I am far more affected by the sight of dolphins flopping about bleeding to death when it doesn't bother me so much to watch a mackerel that I just caught flopping on the deck. It should be the same, but for some reason it's completely different. Why do you suppose that is?
Back to work...
posted by Our Hero, at 2:30 PM
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