By Michael Laws
If there is one great weakness within western society it is unthinking sentimentalism. Nothing induces worse sentimentality than the anthropomorphic excesses of animal lovers and activists.
New Zealand has been in the grip of such hysteria for decades. Wallowing in a benign belief that animals – and particularly mammals – are sort of special class kiddies. They may not do much but there is an especial care that their vulnerability demands.
Which is why the plight of animals tends to invoke a media frenzy as opposed to the plight of children. The SPCA is particularly creepy. All that money and energy on animals when so many abused kids need such champions.
In fact, that's the problem with all animal activists. They have sacrificed their true humanity in an odd effort to strike an empathetic chord with creatures possessing the self-awareness of a snail. One day, I'm sure, it will be classified as a mental condition.
The fact is that animals exist for us. Primarily for our food and then for our entertainment. To emote with creatures that you eat is just perverse. To want to save some species – simply because they are bigger and cuter than others – is equally nuts.
Enter the Japanese whaling fleet. Assuming the role of pantomime villain for harpooning creatures that are not in any danger of extinction. The Antarctic minke whale population is estimated as anything between 300,000 and 750,000. The annual percentage to be taken is derisively tiny.
That the International Whaling Commission don't know exactly how many minke there are is a commentary upon their appalling research. Ironically, the Japanese are doing that for them.
Quite why the Japanese feel compelled to eat this blubbery beast is beyond me. But they do. And they have found a legal loophole in the IWC's rules and regulations to legitimately achieve this annual cull.
Of course, New Zealanders are outraged.
First, we believe the whale to be endangered and internationally protected. The minke is not and there is no legally recognised whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean. There is simply a voluntary agreement amongst a distinct minority of the world's nations.
There is evidence that larger whale species – the humpback and the sperm – are making a considerable comeback from when they were ruthlessly hunted by, gee, the same western nations that are getting all upset at Japan. Including New Zealand.
Second, we think that whales are special. But more special than what? Fish? Other mammals? The fact is that they are not.
They are a food source. No different in IQ than the cows, sheep, pigs or horses that routinely end up in our stomachs or that of our pets. We hunt feral deer in this country. And they are awfully cute. Magnificent even, with their impressive horns and Bambi-like countenance.
Ah, but we farm those domestic stock, say animal activists. Yes, we do. We exploit them to our human end and then we kill them. All those gamboling lambs so happy and cute and running to their mummys. We slit their throats, strip their skin and chop them up. Yum.
So is the answer that we should farm whales? Well, we don't do that to fish. In fact, we catch and catch and eat and eat. And their deaths are equally obnoxious. We let them drown out of the water. Slowly.
And then there are the practical difficulties of farming a minke – that grows to roughly four times the size of a human. No, better to leave them swimming and take just the merest number so as not to trouble their reproduction. Which is what the Japanese do.
If the argument is that whales don't die instantly, and suffer needlessly, then concentrate upon finding that solution. Improvements have certainly been made. Research suggests that two-thirds of all minke die almost instantly once the exploding harpoon enters their body. That number was estimated at 20% a couple of decades ago.
The reaction of the Australian and New Zealand governments has verged on hysteria. At least, publicly. Privately, the Aussies were trying to do a deal on a restricted whaling catch while talking tough about International Court action. WikiLeaks exposed their hypocrisy for what it was.
Similarly Labour leader Phil Goff has gone bonkers on this issue. Send the New Zealand Navy down, he says. This after threats from the Sea Shepherd about launching kamikaze raids against the Japanese whaling fleet. In response, the Japanese government is sending a frigate or two to protect their countrymen.
Goff wants us to send our latest navy outrigger to enter that fray. Yep, starting a war over a few non-endangered whales is how desperate the Labour leader has become.
But this is the season of sentimentality. And the opposition wish to respond. A shame that we were not so passionate about the children of our human ferals. They truly are an endangered. Every day.
Sunday Star Times, 9th October 2011
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