mmmmm whale meat
February 10, 2006 2:38 PM   Subscribe

Now you too can feed your pet endangered meats! Meat from whales caught under Japan's "research" programme is so abundant that it is being sold as pet food. </one link newsFilter>
posted by Tryptophan-5ht (38 comments total)
 
Greenpeace Misleads You! would be an awesome band name.
posted by setanor at 2:52 PM on February 10, 2006


Some people never learn, I guess they are idiots ? I bet they believe eating a whale penis will enlarge their very little weenor or make their skin softy and silky.

Would you walk away from a fool and his money ?
posted by elpapacito at 3:06 PM on February 10, 2006


You need human horn to do that. The lower horn.
posted by setanor at 3:07 PM on February 10, 2006


Oh shut up futurama references make me miss the show :<
posted by elpapacito at 3:12 PM on February 10, 2006


Some people never learn, I guess they are idiots ? I bet they believe eating a whale penis will enlarge their very little weenor or make their skin softy and silky.

It could also be because whale is fucking tasty...
posted by SweetJesus at 3:29 PM on February 10, 2006


"whale is fucking tasty..."

Now you, too, can feed your pet engendered meats!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:34 PM on February 10, 2006


Environmentaldevestatialicious.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:36 PM on February 10, 2006


sweetjesusonastick: yeah it may as well be

The most popular dish at Kujiraya is the fried whale nuggets which look remarkably like chicken nuggets. And perhaps more disappointingly, it even tastes a bit like chicken too.

Uh :o Well it could be that less endangered whales are enjoying a lot of sympathy from highly emotional people ; the other less emotional ones are getting scammed as well it seems :D I bet some of the whale consumer report "so exquisite" yak and other blathering because they know it's whale...but in a blind test they wouldn't mind the difference or be able to really tell.

Speaking of Futurama : BenderBrau :) it's the sticker that makes most difference.
posted by elpapacito at 3:36 PM on February 10, 2006


So, I'm curious. This does debunk the idea that the Japanese are hunting whales for the high demand of whale meat - after all, if there's so little demand they're having to dispose of it as pet feed, what other reason would they have to hunt them?
posted by FormlessOne at 4:21 PM on February 10, 2006


(just one more)

Whale Biologist: ...and the fifth reason whales kill is for the sheer fun of it!
Leela: Anything else I should know?
Whale Biologist: Yes. Your suit's lumpy and you smell awful. Hey, I call 'em like I see 'em. I'm a whale biologist.
posted by setanor at 4:23 PM on February 10, 2006


Maybe pets like whale meat and have just never had the means to adequately hunt them on their own.

Ever thought of that, mister smarty-pants?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:23 PM on February 10, 2006


Well then adopt-a-whale and throw some pets to her, see if she had the means to adequately ... oh that was a close call I almost bought into crash_logic
posted by elpapacito at 4:31 PM on February 10, 2006


elpapacito writes "I bet they believe eating a whale penis will enlarge their very little weenor"

Well, it's either that or buying an SUV...
posted by clevershark at 4:40 PM on February 10, 2006


Who cares? The problem before was that they were hunting the whales to extinction, but that dosn't seem to be the case anymore. Are people seriously arguing that eating whale meat is somehow less moral then eating cow or chicken meat?
posted by delmoi at 4:44 PM on February 10, 2006


Cows and chickens lack the "cute" quality of whales.
posted by clevershark at 5:07 PM on February 10, 2006


Yes, I would argue that. Chickens were bred to be eaten, and there are billions of them. Whales are wild animals that could end up being another animal on the list of large animals that will be made extinct by resource mismanagement. I do feel you will disagree with this statement as I suspect you have a more compassionate-to-individual-souls viewpoint than myself, but at least we agree that you shouldn't waste whale meat on your pets.
posted by sleslie at 5:11 PM on February 10, 2006


This does debunk the idea that the Japanese are hunting whales for the high demand of whale meat.

I thought that the idea was that the Japanese were saying the purpose of their whale catching was for research purposes but that in fact it was about &yen&yen.
posted by shoos at 5:22 PM on February 10, 2006


that would be the yen symbol
posted by shoos at 5:22 PM on February 10, 2006


Cows and chickens can be raised in your back yard.
posted by furtive at 5:23 PM on February 10, 2006


So can whales, if you live in Newfoundland.
posted by GuyZero at 5:58 PM on February 10, 2006


Maybe pets like whale meat and have just never had the means to adequately hunt them on their own.

I always thought that about giving tuna to cats. I can't see a cat dragging an albacore to shore, never mind a whale.

But, then again, we feed cattle to cattle. They probably didn't hunt rogue bulls, either.

Cows and chickens can be raised in your back yard.

So can monkeys, yet we don't usually get a Big Kong option at McDonald's. (Although I do have private misgivings about Purina Monkey Chow.)
posted by FormlessOne at 6:11 PM on February 10, 2006


elpapacito: I bet they believe eating a whale penis will enlarge their very little weenor or make their skin softy and silky.

I'll take you up on that bet, then. Japanese don't think whale penis will enlarge their little weenors. As an Italian, you probably just dislike the idea of eating whale meat because their blubber would make your skin even greasier than it already is.

(Note: Above is not said in earnest. I am part Italian. It's just a racist snark to highlight elpapacito's racist snark)

Personally, I dislike the taste of whale. It's pretty strong stuff, and tastes a bit too...bloody for me. Imagine boiling about half the water out of a cup of cow blood and then basting some meat with the resulting blood paste. Maybe I just had it at bad restaurants.
posted by Bugbread at 6:56 PM on February 10, 2006


bugbread writes "Imagine boiling about half the water out of a cup of cow blood and then basting some meat with the resulting blood paste. "

Mmmmmm...blood paste.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:50 PM on February 10, 2006


I have this disturbing image of Frank Whaley and Matthew Broderick loading a large, er, ah, something-or-other into the back of Carmine Sabatini's car...
posted by cenoxo at 8:53 PM on February 10, 2006


So, I'm curious. This does debunk the idea that the Japanese are hunting whales for the high demand of whale meat - after all, if there's so little demand they're having to dispose of it as pet feed, what other reason would they have to hunt them?

In America, we eat the good parts of the cow, and process the rest into pet food.

In Japan, they eat the good parts of the whale, and process the rest into pet food.

Is this a lot less obvious than I think it is?
posted by swell at 8:56 PM on February 10, 2006


good parts?
posted by yhbc at 9:01 PM on February 10, 2006


Imagine boiling about half the water out of a cup of cow blood and then basting some meat with the resulting blood paste. Maybe I just had it at bad restaurants.
posted by bugbread at 6:56 PM PST on February 10 [!]


Would that be the whale burger or the whale dogfood? You tried it at multiple restaurants?
posted by onegreeneye at 9:24 PM on February 10, 2006


onegreeneye,

It was chunks of whale, batter fried. I was just trying to describe the taste of blood, though, not the consistency or presentation. The consistency and presentation was more akin to fried chicken breasts or chicken tempura. It just tasted like it had double octane blood.

Two restaurants. In the inner folk-wisdom battle of my soul, "twice bitten thrice shy" slightly beat out "third time's the charm".
posted by Bugbread at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2006


Will they ever stop? What will make them stop?
posted by sid at 9:58 PM on February 10, 2006


Mad whale disease.
posted by Bugbread at 10:27 PM on February 10, 2006


shoos: I thought that the idea was that the Japanese were saying the purpose of their whale catching was for research purposes but that in fact it was about &yen&yen.

It's been transparently about money the entire time. When is the last time you heard about a zoological study of large mammals that was based around killing them? That kind of research is never done that way.

I've heard they do actually report data back about the whales (stomach contents and whatnot), so while it's obviously not about the research, they do actually do some.
posted by Mitrovarr at 11:28 PM on February 10, 2006


I've heard they do actually report data back about the whales (stomach contents and whatnot)

The problem is, the stomach contents are used to justify arguments that greater numbers of whales must be culled, since the stomach contents contained fish, hence whales were responsible for declining fish stocks.
posted by Meridian at 2:11 AM on February 11, 2006


Mark Simmonds, director of science at WDCS, said: "Whaling is a cruel activity and the fact that Japan is killing these amazing animals to produce dog food is shocking."

What exactly is the issue here? That Japan should stop whaling because it is cruel? Mr. Simmonds has obviously never been to a slaughterhouse. If cruelty is the reason whaling should be banned, shouldn't we start in our own backyard and ban all cruel meat production processes (i.e. about 99% of all)?

Also, why is it shocking that the whale meat is sold as pet food? Because it is a waste? Does that mean that Mr. Simmonds is OK with whale meat sold for human consumption?

IMO the only valid reason to ban whaling is to prevent certain whale species from becoming extinct. Everything else is just sentimental (and hypocritical, unless you are a vegetarian) bullshit.
posted by sour cream at 3:33 AM on February 11, 2006


There's been a big push to get people to eat whale. I even got it in my friggin' school lunch. The problem is, whale is nasty. It just doesn't taste very good. Japanese people play it off like whale eating is some long-standing tradition, but they only started eating it after the war when they couldn't get any other meat. I really don't understand why they don't stop eating it now that they can get plenty of safe beef from Australia. I don't think they are holding out in case all the cows and chickens in the world are eliminated by Mad Cow and Bird Flu. Is it just stubbornness? How many people make a living hunting whales and would be out of a job if it were stopped? As much as anything else, it seems as if the Japanese don't like being dictated to from outside and are taking a stand on this issue for that reason, even though no one wants to eat that nasty whale meat.
posted by donkeymon at 4:55 AM on February 11, 2006


So has anyone who has eaten whale meat actually liked it? None of the folks I've asked have. Maybe it's like dog, where it varies depending on how it's cooked (Korean dog soup = good. Beijing dog stew = bad).
posted by Bugbread at 6:32 PM on February 11, 2006


Personally, I can't stand whale meat. I'll stick with my shark fin, thank you very much!
posted by nlindstrom at 12:19 AM on February 12, 2006


I'd totally boycott Japan for this, if they didn't make the best shit.
posted by Citizen Premier at 3:33 AM on February 12, 2006


it seems as if the Japanese don't like being dictated to from outside and are taking a stand on this issue for that reason, even though no one wants to eat that nasty whale meat.
posted by donkeymon at 4:55 AM PST on February 11 [!]


Great point, and one felt all over the world in coutries and cultures that either haven't had their day yet, or feel their glory days are thought by the rest of the world to be in the distant past.

On another note, I find it ironic that when Native Americans in Washington State whale, middle class folks who express no interest in the abysmal state of our native reservations, the shocking infant mortality rate or numbing poverty and lack of opportunity of native americans, come out in droves to crap themselves when the Makah's eat a whale.
posted by onegreeneye at 11:50 AM on February 12, 2006


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