The Worst Thing About Dolphin And Whale Hunters? The Meat Eaters Who Complain About it

Ever since ‘The Cove’ came out back in 2009 everyone’s been hating on Japan for killing the beautiful creatures of the sea. This award winning documentary came out around the same time as US TV show ‘Whale Wars’ which saw a tiny group of American guerilla animal rights activists trying their best to overthrow the controversial Japanese whaling trade.

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And then we had ‘Blackfish’. Nearly as depressing and eye-opening as ‘The Cove’, this documentary uncovers the terrifying and dark truth of the Sea World industry.

Movies such as these highlight the issue of killing dolphins and whales for meat or using them for entertainment. Since coming out there has been a declining demand for dolphin meat in the country due to increased awareness and pressure from activists. After the release of ‘Blackfish’ stock has plummeted as people straight up refuse to go and watch Tilikum slowly rotting away in captivity.

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Basically, the documentaries have had an effect. They tapped into our empathetic brain pocket and the world felt angry that such intelligent and vibrant creatures should have to endure any kind of suffering. Which is all well and good right?

Well yeah, that would be totally cool, except for the fact that pretty much everyone eats cows, chickens, pigs and lambs. Now before you start banging on about how Japanese whaling techniques are ‘barbaric’, I think some of you should be made aware of the fact that abattoirs ain’t too peachy either.

If any of you can be arsed to pick up a book, why not give ‘Eating Animals’ by Jonathan Safran Foer a read before you start moaning about the inhumane way that animals are killed at the other end of the world, because otherwise you are nothing short of a hypocrite. Speaking to abattoir employees, in a regular, Western industrial farm, cows are killed in such a high number that the bolt that is used to make them unconscious is often ineffective. As a result, in many cases cows remain conscious as they are skinned alive and have their legs removed, convulsing in pain as they are suspended by chains.

I’m not trying to preach for you to stop eating meat here – that’s totally your decision. What I’m saying is that if you want to bang on about the cruelty inflicted on sea creatures, then you should be doing the same for land animals. And to deny that they are treated any less cruelly is just completely ignorant Western hypocrisy.

The Western media has a serious animal discrimination problem: anything cute, exotic, rare and nice to look at gets international protection. Just look at Cecil the lion. People were kicking OFF that this animal got shot, but we’re totally cool with the needless torture of billions of animals each year so that we can fill out Tescos’ shelves with £2 chickens. But Cecil was nice to look at, as are dolphins and whales, so no dentist or Japanese harpooner is allowed to touch them.

There is a strong argument to end the capturing, imprisoning and hunting of dolphins and whales. But if you’re going to support it, do the same for every single walking thing on this earth. And if you don’t agree with any of the shit I’ve just said, at least I’ve got Trey Parker and Matt Stone to back me up on this one.