NZ Pro Whaling, Mcdonalds+Weightwatchers, Temple Grandin
Hello and welcome to episode 21 of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.
This episode I'd like to talk about New Zealand becoming a Pro Whaling country, Mcdonalds and Weightwatchers entering an unholy relationship, and the HBO Temple Grandin movie.
A recent news story in New Zealand is how we may become a Pro Whaling country. It sickens me to even say that, "New Zealand, my country, a proud, Pro Whaling country".
The basic theory behind the proponents seems to be "We cant beat the evil Japanese whalers who want to go out and murder Whales, so lets join them, and maybe we can politely ask them as friends to spare a whale or two". I find it very upsetting, so New Zealand would be supporting what is called "Commercial Whaling", we'd basically be saying that Whales are animals to be used for Meat. I've long said in online comments that Whales are no different, no more special than Cows or Chickens or Pigs, that they are not mythical beings from Saturn, and now it seems like I'll be proven right, although by the Pro Whaling side. A question is, whats to stop the allowed Commercial quota, the number of whales taken, from rising?
Theres also been a lot of coverage of Pete Bethune, a New Zealander who owned Earth Race before it was rebranded "Ady Gil", now a member of Sea Shepherd, who has been arrested in Japan. I'm quite sick of all this Sea Shepherd news to be honest, but this current story fits in with the general mood in New Zealand about whaling.
I'll play a few clips from the mainstream media.
My next clip is about how we dont need to kill whales for science.
Im personally not a big fan of "tagging" animals, in the clip we see the researchers shooting guns with the satellite tags as projectiles at the whales. Biopsies also involve using a kind of syringe to pierce away part of the whales body, which is then used for science, presumably. I realise that we look after certain animals, birds for example, but I've never liked see the animals with massive radio transmitter backpacks on. Would we like it if aliens "tagged" us that way? Perhaps thats what they do now, when they allegedly invade a certain cavity of ours? I dont think we'd want to be have some transmitter pierced into us.
And the next clip is John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, about why it might be a great thing to be Pro Whaling.
Did that sound familiar? "oh yeah, well it cant be morally right ever, but we share the same objective and the animals are beautiful and we love them very much but we have to make steps towards helping them and the first step is obviously to kill the animals but to try and be a bit more gentle, and by doing that perhaps in a million years we wont kill these animals?"
I understand its very difficult for anyone to stop the Japanese whalers, AND THE WHALERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES, too often I hear people talking about "evil Japanese" in regards to the small number of Japanese whalers. I realise that little old New Zealand, population four million, half of New York City, a third the population of Tokyo, we need Japanese exports more than they need New Zealands. I know we export Aluminium to Japan, they basically own at least part of the Aluminium Smelter near Invercargill where I live, but we wont export much else to them, maybe Dairy products would be our other largest export. I guess we could refuse to sell them our precious milk, I mean, how could anyone live without dairy products, right? We can cut off their milk supply, and they'll come crawling back to the bargaining table, weakened from not having milk, and they'll do what we tell them to, right?
Then, we have the people who DEMAND that our government do more, that NZ naval ships would be sent out, well, what would they do? Try and stop the whalers? Would our navy throw smelly things at them? Or shine lasers in their eyes? Or turn on a big water hose and spray the whaling ships? Yeah, if our navy wanted to attack the Japanese whaling ships, the Japanese armed forces kind of have these things called F15 Fighter Jets, which can more than defend themselves against stink bombs. New Zealand has essentially no army, navy or air force, which has always saddened me a little, although I suppose its something to be proud of in some ways. I've always been interested in millitary hardware, I dont like what its used for, but I am fond of Fighter Jets and Attack Helicopters. I'd love to visit an American air show, you know those events where a crowd of people stare and point up in the sky, "look what the government spends billions of dollars on each year", while the song "rock you like a hurricane" repeats over and over.
In New Zealand, we have perhaps one airshow, the Wanaka Air Show, its a bunch of old World War II fossils, New Zealands cutting edge air force, putting about at 300 kilometres an hour. From time to time, the Australians blitz over the ditch with one of their lovely American Fighter Jets, and show us how its done in First World Countries.
Anyway, surely, the answer is not to legalize Whaling. Its not like when we legalized prostitution, you couldnt possibly argue that the Whales choose to be harpooned with explosive charges.
Regardless of what happens, this will be very interesting to follow.
Elsewhere in New Zealand, Weightwatchers have joined with Mcdonalds in an unholy alliance. Mcdonalds is paying to use the Weightwatchers brand, a few items sold at Mcdonalds can apparently be claimed as "healthy", which is news to me! I've personally got nothing against fastfood, but this is marriage of two giant mega corporations is too weird not to cover.
The last story I'd like to cover is a trailer for the Temple Grandin HBO movie. I believe this is from the HBO website, its the "Humane" video. I'll play it in full, about what a wonderful person Temple Grandin is for overcoming her personal adversity to design death camps.
Yeah, well somehow I figured it the problem was not what the cows were doing to the slaughtermen and slaughterwomen. Everything we do to animals to make our food is "manmade commotion".
I dont understand, if what Temple Grandin has designed is so wonderful for the animals that she loves so much, why cant they show it in a movie? Why cant it be performed by the actors in character? Perhaps because it would be considered cruel for an animal to be killed that way "just for a movie"? But its acceptable to do it many, many times a day, every day, in every country in the world, "because we like the taste of meat"?
What a crazy thing, to be forced to use animatronic puppet cows.
Temple Grandin also has comments about Animals as Property, as we know, she has no problem with killing animals, they are items to be used of course, although with a few restrictions on the owner.
Quote: "To discuss whether or not animals should be property, I first have to define what the word property means in a concrete manner. I will limit my discussion to the framework of the U.S. legal system and culture. When I own an item as property, I am allowed to do certain things with it. If I own a cow and a screwdriver I can sell them, give them away, destroy them, experiment on them, eat them, put them in my will, profit from them, or use them in my business. I am also allowed to buy another cow or screwdriver. For example, I am allowed to slaughter the cow or destroy the screwdriver in a stamping press. Although absurd, I could even eat the screwdriver if I ground it into very fine powder. Both the cow and the screwdriver can be used in my business and I can put them in my will. I am allowed to modify cattle by selective breeding and I can modify my screwdriver by painting its handle green.
However, both the laws in the U.S. and our culture put severe restrictions on the kinds of things I can do to the cow and but place no restrictions on the things I can do to the screwdriver. I could be punished for felony animal abuse if I stabbed the cow in the eye with the screwdriver, but there would be no penalty for mangling the screwdriver and slowly destroying it by hitting it with my hammer."
That didnt really explain to me WHY we would feel such a way about cows, or any other animal. If its because of our culture, because mainstream people in Country X feel a certain way, have grown up a certain way, then we, as activists for Animal Rights can change that by promoting what we believe in, Veganism. We are currently being told that maybe it would kind of be a good idea to sign up on that "Pro Whaling" team, because we cant beat them using force, we might as well join them.
Sorry Prime Minister John Key, I think its best we focus on promoting Veganism, not that Whales are special beings and how it could never be morally right to kill them but that oh we cant stop other people from doing it, so we might as well join them, at least making it legal, who knows, maybe New Zealanders will go out and kill whales too.
To work with the big industries to try and change what they are doing, it doesnt sound like Animal Rights to me, I dont see how it helps promote Veganism, I dont see how it could ever help the animals.
Thank you for listening to Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.
You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals at coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com
If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, or on Twitter, twitter.com/ j a y w o n t d a r t, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you for listening.
Sources
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Mcdonalds Weight Watchers NZ
http://tvnz.co.nz/health-news/mcdonald-s-does-deal-weight-watchers-3389831/video
Temple Grandin Animals Are Not Things
http://www.grandin.com/welfare/animals.are.not.things.html
Protest in Japan
http://www.3news.co.nz/Japanese-protest-for-whaling-outside-NZ-embassy/tabid/370/articleID/145889/Default.aspx
NZ at odds with Australia
http://www.3news.co.nz/Labour-NZ-at-odds-with-Australia-over-whaling/tabid/572/articleID/145348/Default.aspx
http://www.smh.com.au/news/whale-watch/a-maori-voice-for-a-japanese-cause/2008/01/18/1200620211150.html
Bethune Arrested Japan
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kiwi-anti-whaler-arrested-in-japan-3412763/video
"I guess we could refuse to sell them our precious milk, I mean, how could anyone live without dairy products, right? We can cut off their milk supply, and they'll come crawling back to the bargaining table, weakened from not having milk, and they'll do what we tell them to, right?"
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is... Study some economics. If you're brushing aside this issue of trade with this presumptuous "it's as simple as that" solution then you might as well say New Zealand should create a policy which says we'll only trade with vegan countries. There's a reason why people who work for Treasury and the WTO can't just be young idealistic vegans with no qualifications.
hi RubyJudas, I remember you asking for help forming a band?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, RE economics, countries create "sanctions" all the time, these have been done before on political issues, and I'd suppose the vast majority of NZers believe Whales to be super-magical beings from beyond saturn (as mentioned on my show), I wouldnt be surprised if many people decided to agree with "We dont want to trade with countries who kill magical Whales".
I would disagree with this. I dont really know how we can "reign in" whalers, regardless of what country they are from, but especially from a larger, more powerful country.
I said this clearly on my show, but to me, the answer could never be "oh, so we should just legalise it and then nobody will have a problem anymore".
Tell me RubyJudas, what would your informed answer be?
Thank you for commenting on my blog, I hope you have a lovely day, and good luck with your music :)
"All I can say is... Study some economics. If you're brushing aside this issue of trade with this presumptuous "it's as simple as that" solution then you might as well say New Zealand should create a policy which says we'll only trade with vegan countries. There's a reason why people who work for Treasury and the WTO can't just be young idealistic vegans with no qualifications."
ReplyDeleteUm, hello... When he said that he was being sarcastic.