Jill Howard-Church,
Animals and
Society Institute
November 2010
One of my favorite quotes says, “Silence is the voice of complicity.”
If
we don't speak up against injustice, we help it to continue.
The efforts to stop the Japanese whale and dolphin slaughter may require
more ethically consistent policy and behavior on the part of people and
entities worldwide who make excuses for their complicity. But if we can't
"save the whales" after several decades of trying, there's not much hope for
saving any other species, either.
News coverage of this year’s dolphin roundup and slaughter in Taiji,
Japan will reinvigorate the debate over the horrors so vividly depicted in
last year’s Academy Award-winning film “The Cove.” A report this week
describes entire families of risso dolphins and pilot whales being
butchered, with no doubt more horrors to come.
Protests are planned at numerous Japanese embassies and consulates on
October 14 in an effort to push yet again for a halt to the slaughter. Those
who have seen the film or read about the issue will likely (and justifiably)
react harshly toward what “those people” are doing to animals. But “those
people” aren’t acting entirely alone; there is complicity to be found
elsewhere that we must acknowledge and deal with.
First, there’s the economic incentive to kill dolphins and whales. Not many
Japanese consume whale meat, but those who do consider it a delicacy and pay
high prices for it. Such commerce isn’t confined to Japan; earlier this year
a California restaurant was caught serving the meat of endangered whales,
although it was fined and has since shut down. Anyone who eats “exotic”
cuisine is responsible for whatever means brought it to the table.
Aside from meat, the economic incentive to capture dolphins derives from
their value in the entertainment trade. Bottlenose dolphins are held captive
around the world for use in shows and swim-with programs. Some of the
dolphins captured in Taiji each year go to these captive facilities,
although wild dolphins supposedly are banned from being imported to the
U.S., at least directly.
But anyone who visits dolphin shows anywhere in the world supports the
premise that it’s acceptable to keep these sensitive, intelligent creatures
in a highly artificial and stressful environment, just to amuse paying
customers. That creates a market for new dolphin shows to open, like the one
coming to Atlanta next year.
Second, there’s the “tradition” excuse. Cruelty in the name of culture
occurs worldwide; we only object when the animals involved aren’t consumed
in our culture. Even in the United States, native Inuit and Makah
communities have been given permission to kill a small number of whales
each, albeit with much controversy.
The mayor of Taiji, Kazutaka Sangen, defends the hunting and eating of
dolphins on cultural grounds. "We will pass down the history of our
ancestors to the next generation, preserve it,” he said. We have a strong
sense of pride about this."
But critics say there’s more tragedy than tradition when it comes to
Japanese eating whales. The commercial Japanese whale trade didn’t start
until 1898 when the Norwegians helped the Japanese in order to obtain whale
oil, sales of which financed Japan’s invasion of China. The Europeans still
managed to out-slaughter the Japanese, but not before killing record numbers
of whales in the 1930s and nearly wiping out the Western grey whale
population.
After whaling halted during World War II, the United States became complicit
in its modern revival. Gen. Douglas MacArthur helped the Japanese to
re-establish a deep-sea whaling business so that the war-ravaged Japanese
could keep the meat but provide the United States with millions of dollars
of valuable whale oil.
“Tradition” may now just be a convenient, politically correct PR excuse for
whaling. Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (whose
valiant fight against Japanese whalers is seen on Animal Planet’s “Whale
Wars” series), wrote, “The Japanese say that we must respect their culture.
I can only respond by asking why? What is it about Japanese culture we MUST
respect? …. No Westerner, Chinese, Indian or Arab is under a cultural
imperative to accept inhumane slaughter and blood sports. All human beings
have a right to disrespect killing of any kind without being condemned or
vilified for it.”
Then there’s political complicity. Long at odds with most other nations in
the International Whaling Commission over hunting moratoriums, the Japanese
resorted to bribing several smaller nations for their votes against whaling
restrictions. Had those countries not provided their support, Japan would
have been more politically isolated and humane policies would more easily
prevail. No other governments are getting tough enough with Japan to bring
about change.
A writer from Time magazine speculated that by refusing to bow to
international pressure to stop whaling (even though the low consumption rate
means it’s not a very profitable business), the Japanese government is
sending a signal that it won’t be pressured into hunting fewer bluefin tuna,
either, since that species is highly prized for use in sushi (the Japanese
eat approximately 80 percent of the annual bluefin catch). So, in that
sense, anyone who eats bluefin tuna may be indirectly complicit in the
continuation of the whaling trade.
One of my favorite quotes says, “Silence is the voice of complicity.” If we
don't speak up against injustice, we help it to continue.
The efforts to stop the Japanese whale and dolphin slaughter may require
more ethically consistent policy and behavior on the part of people and
entities worldwide who make excuses for their complicity. But if we can't
"save the whales" after several decades of trying, there's not much hope for
saving any other species, either.
Jill Howard Church is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and editor who specializes in animal issues. She is currently Managing Editor of AV Magazine for the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) and the President of GAveg, The Vegetarian Society of Georgia.
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