All entries for Friday 23 June 2006

Whaling and the ethics of meat

The debate on Whaling recently has interested me in terms of the ethics of eating meat – a subject I am fairly passionate about.

You see, there is a great deal of unease for many people, and I include myself here, about the idea of eating whale meat. However, if I hold true to my statements on meat–eating then I should have no problem with chewing a hunk of blue whale, right?

Well, no actually – and I am not sure why.

Let's take the first comment – many whales are endangered species and so to fish for them would be threatening their very existence. Ok, I am fine with this and am happy to say no to eating whale in this instance, and would apply the same rule to any animal or plant – if it's endangered then it's a no–no. Cod is a good example of something I look to avoid as the fish stocks have taken a hammering.

However, this lead me to my next thought, if it is not endangered, is it then ok? If the whale population is big enough to sustainably fish then by my reckoning we should be all enjoying juicy whale steaks.

Hmmmm. Not so easy now – I don't know if it is my western tastes imposing themselves here but I still feel uncomfortable about this. Perhaps I expose myself as a horrendous hypocrite here. Is it because I am unprepared to eat something widely recognised as a beautiful and intelligent creature? Well, pigs are pretty smart and I eat those. Pheasants and Deer are beautiful (pretty dumb though…) and I eat those. So why am I reticent about eating whale, or for that matter dolphin.

Is there a distinction between animals farmed and those in the wild that I feel is a problem – well, I'll eat wild boar, fish, pigeon and other game – so that's not it.

Perhaps this is all cultural and if I sat in a Japanese restaurant and was presented with a hunk 'o' Minki I would I would shrug and tuck in.

I just don't know as yet. If I am to stick to the principles discussed in previous posts then by all rights I will pick up the knife and fork and go for it. I am just not sure I am quite ready to take that challenge.

(no doubt, the whales aren't lining up to test me yet either!)

: 23 Jun 2006 09:29 |  Tags: Food |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem