boulderjohn:
What makes whales more intelligent an sensitive and social than a moose or a fox?
Probably the same thing that makes a human more intelligent and sensitive and social than a fox--its brain.
Or do you think it's OK to kill and eat humans, too? After all, we're just another mammal.
Have you ever compared brain size of whales to brain size in humans?
OK, maybe you will argue that size isn't everything.
Read a little and learn what science has discovered over the years about the incredible intelligence of these creatures. The problem is that they are intelligent in ways that we don't know. Maybe they can't speak Norwegian, but they can do things mentally that we can only barely hope to understand some day.
Can you go into hibernation? No? Well bears are more intelligent than you then, still they are being hunted.
Do you think fish dont feel pain when you fish them? Do you think a fox dont feel pain when you run over it with your car? You think dogs dont mourn lost flock members?
The reason why people (generally) dont eat people isnt because were too intellignt to be food. Its because, just like a pack of wolfs, we care about the other members of our "flock" and were on top of the food chain.
Yes, the whales brain is huge (Sperm whale brain is approx 5x as big as the human brain). Also the average man only use 20% of its brain capacity. However the brain-to-size ratio for a man is MUCH higher than for the whales. Does that make us more intelligent? Does a huge brain make the whale intelligent?
If the whales brainsize compared to the body size is SMALLER than than for man, couldnt I also say that only means that the whale has less brain to process nerve signals, which is what trigger pain, in turn resulting in the whale only being a big lump of meat?
Yes, the whales DOES things we will never be able to do and we will most likely not understand how. Why? One thing is that people cant do the kind of research on whales as we can on human beings, since the whales live in the ocean and is WAY huge for the cat-scan.. Its also related to physiology and evolution. Instinct is yet another factor.
Dogs also sense things like earthquakes before they even happen, that makes the dog more intelligent than you too?
Yeah, ive read up on my "brain/body size/intelligence" knowledge again.. No, a big brain does not mean a smart mammal, there is a lot more to take into consideration..
Bottomn line is that all mammals have brains and nerves, which means that they all have feelings. If its wrong to hunt whales, its also wrong to hunt any other mammal.
Is it wrong to hunt other mammals because its wrong to hunt people? Well, at times we do even hunt people, its called war.
