Posted on 11/01/2007 8:18:22 AM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
Actually, according to their encephalization quotient, dolphins are about five times as smart as dogs. This makes them about five to ten times as smart as pigs, which have approximately the same relative brain mass as dogs. (These figures vary from species to species.) I should note that dolphins are, according to relative to brain mass, considerably smarter than chimpanzees. They are one of the only other creatures on this earth that are self-aware (aside from chimpanzees and humans, of course). Please don’t pretend like dolphins are unintelligent.
I do find it amusing that you bring up the idea of “if it tastes good, it should be a food animal.” Sure, and plenty of people find domestic dogs and cats to be tasty. Plenty of people, for that matter, find humans to be tasty. That doesn’t mean they should be eaten. Any living creature can be eaten. That doesn’t mean that they should. There is more value in a dolphin life than a bovine life; cows can be contained by a single wire about hip high. (Their stupidity knows next to no bounds.) Cows also happen to be extremely tasty and provide significant nourishment. Hell, it’s almost like they’re a tailor-made food animal! They’re easy to maintain, easy to breed, easy to feed, grow huge - the list goes on. They provide leather and milk. Contrast that with dolphins, that provide little relative benefit compared to the difficulty in capturing them. (This also reminds me of the eskimos that shoot whales with .50 caliber rifles because it’s a “cultural tradition.”)
Look, there are plenty of things in this world that people enjoy that I find wrong. I don’t subscribe to this or any other sort of moral relativism. Japan is also home to some of the world’s most disgusting and revolting pornography. That doesn’t make it OK.
If humans are so smart, why do a significantly larger percentage of them drink and drug themselves to death than the percentage of dolphins who strand themselves?
Do you work for the federal goobermint, with those who claim to know just how many fish and mammals are left in the 7/10 of the earth covered by water?
And although I can't prove it, I'm willing to bet a lot more dolphins are rescued by humans than humans rescued by dolphins.
And you never, never see dolphins driving the really good cars...
:O)
Please provide proof that dolphins are "self-aware", according to your definition.
There is more value in a dolphin life than a bovine life
"Value" for what?
Probably true, but stories like this one are pretty cool anyway. http://bornagainredneck.blogspot.com/2007/11/dolphins-save-surfer-from-shark.html
And you never, never see dolphins driving the really good cars...
I said they were intelligent, I didn't say they had thumbs!!!
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