no one you see is smarter than he
Just watched a documentary movie called the Cove, about the yearly capture and slaughter of dolphins in a Japanese town called Taiji.
Now, one of the things that bothered me not in the documentary itself but in the comments was that many of the commenters, both against the fuss and in defense of it, were comparing dolphins to other food animals. See, I don't have a huge problem with eating meat. I think we eat too much of it, and "farm" animals are raised in a way that makes eating them a health risk (cows and e. coli, chicken and salmonella...) but I'm not one of those people who go around screaming that killing any animal is wrong. My canine teeth argue otherwise.
Dolphins and whales, however, are a completely different matter, and it disturbs me that even those against their killing compare them to farm animals because it implies they have no notion of the difference in intelligence. Now I do love animals, and I don't mean to say that any are not worthy of respect, but if one can draw a dividing line separating creatures that are sentient (my definition of which includes the ability to recognize one's own instincts and choose to ignore them), then I'm convinced that the species above that line are chimps, humans, dolphins, and at least some other whales. Killing a dolphin is killing something of near or equal intelligence to yourself, and that's what makes it different and wrong. (a strong component of the film is how brutal the slaughter is, with many of the dolphins bleeding to death from stab wounds while they try to escape, but ultimately it wouldn't make a difference if they were killed instantly)
But that's not what inspired me to post. It could have been a story about anything, and the effect at the very end would have been the same.
The final shot of the film was of a guy standing in one of those wide, busy Japanese intersections, holding a portable screen playing a recording of the dolphin slaughter as swarms of people walked past. In fast-motion, day turned to night without a break in the bustle. Only in the last second of the shot did it show people stopping, in ones and twos, beginning to form a crowd. On that image, I teared up.
You can cry all you like over cruelty and death, but it won't make a difference until people notice.
Now, one of the things that bothered me not in the documentary itself but in the comments was that many of the commenters, both against the fuss and in defense of it, were comparing dolphins to other food animals. See, I don't have a huge problem with eating meat. I think we eat too much of it, and "farm" animals are raised in a way that makes eating them a health risk (cows and e. coli, chicken and salmonella...) but I'm not one of those people who go around screaming that killing any animal is wrong. My canine teeth argue otherwise.
Dolphins and whales, however, are a completely different matter, and it disturbs me that even those against their killing compare them to farm animals because it implies they have no notion of the difference in intelligence. Now I do love animals, and I don't mean to say that any are not worthy of respect, but if one can draw a dividing line separating creatures that are sentient (my definition of which includes the ability to recognize one's own instincts and choose to ignore them), then I'm convinced that the species above that line are chimps, humans, dolphins, and at least some other whales. Killing a dolphin is killing something of near or equal intelligence to yourself, and that's what makes it different and wrong. (a strong component of the film is how brutal the slaughter is, with many of the dolphins bleeding to death from stab wounds while they try to escape, but ultimately it wouldn't make a difference if they were killed instantly)
But that's not what inspired me to post. It could have been a story about anything, and the effect at the very end would have been the same.
The final shot of the film was of a guy standing in one of those wide, busy Japanese intersections, holding a portable screen playing a recording of the dolphin slaughter as swarms of people walked past. In fast-motion, day turned to night without a break in the bustle. Only in the last second of the shot did it show people stopping, in ones and twos, beginning to form a crowd. On that image, I teared up.
You can cry all you like over cruelty and death, but it won't make a difference until people notice.