Faroese Whaling Controversy

[Lord Baal]

and the stoat

So we shouldn't hunt weasels or stoats then? Or should we hunt them exclusively, to eliminate a threat? I've confused myself.

To actually bring things back on-topic, somewhat, I think inno poses a really interesting question. Of course, the very subjective nature of his question - which he readily admits - makes answering it difficult. It's almost certainly a question that can only be answered on a case-by-case basis.

 

[Thedrin]

It doesn't actually harm anyone else. And not even those doing the hunting, because they can always hunt them and then not eat them if they're improper for consumption. And it is obviously sustainable seeing as they've been doing it for cenrturies.

So it's no one else's business but those islanders. Let them and them alone decide on it.

I inferred the post I was responding to to mean that the Faroese economy is in no small way dependent on the pilot whale catch, which is false. I haven't come out against the practice in this thread. I thought my posts leaned the other way.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yes, I eat meat. That doesn't mean I want the food animals to suffer needlessly. And I have literally hugged trees. Back when I used to have my own house and a yard with fruit trees, I'd pat the trees on the trunk every fall, thank them for all their hard work that year in producing fruit for me and food/shelter for the birds and squirrels, and wish them a good winter's sleep.

Isn't another word for people incapable of feeling empathy "sociopath"?

I don't think it will come as a surprise for you that most people do not hug trees. And they are not sociopaths for not caring about trees, or squirrels or whatever. If you are truly even suggesting that they are, then then I'm afraid you're deep into social seclusion, so deep that you lost the attachment with the vast majority of humankind, the abilility to understant what most of your fellow humans feel and how they live. And that way... lies sociopathy! It needs not be deliberately destructive, you know?

I don't care how many people literally hug trees. I feel no need to be embarrassed or apologetic about the fact that I do hug trees. However, I don't wander the streets of my city, hugging every tree I come across. I hugged very specific trees - trees in my yard, trees that provided food and shelter for my family, both human and non-human members. There is no reason whatsoever that I should not let them know (or at least reinforce it to myself) that I appreciate their efforts. Given the kind of environmental crap plants have to put up with in modern times, it's really not easy being a tree.

Imagine that you get your wish that this whaling should be made illegal. It has been stated that a majority of the islanders oppose any banning of the activity. How could they be stopped? Obviouly under these conditions only by the application of exterior force upon them. Should Denmark ban it and send over police to fine, beat up, and/or imprision anyone who dared challenge the prohibition (for that is how unpopular laws must be enforced)? Or perhaps promote an enbargo on the Feroe Islands, living conditions of its human population be damned?
In other words, how much violence agains humans is acceptable for the sake of avoiding needless suffering by animals? At what point does demanding instruments for the protection of some animals makes one a sociopath in regads to the humans who want to cause the claimed "needless suffering" upon those animals? (needless, one should keep in mind, is a subjective judgement)

You act like I don't give a damn at all about humans. If these were stone-age tech people with no other food resources, that would be a completely different situation. I still wouldn't like it, but I would acknowledge that they have the right to survive somehow.

However, these people are not a stone-age tech society. And it's been made clear that the whales they insist on killing can't be eaten safely anyway. So the only reason they kill them is for pleasure.

That's simply morally wrong, in my view.

Sentient plants? I wouldn't want to learn about that! We have to eat something, you know?

Refusing to learn about it doesn't make it any less real (or at least possible).