Dolphins and Human Rights - a possible reality?

[FathomFear]

I dont think you can eat dolphin meat, so there rly is no reason to kill them in the first place.

I think the point is that even if you could--and even if they were very, very tasty--they have a level of intelligence and self-awareness such that we shouldn't be doing that.

---------- Post added 2012-02-23 at 12:20 PM ----------

I'll accept it when they declare their rights.

Humans only have human rights because we declared them and agreed upon them by ourselfs. You can not declare some other species rights.

That's not a solid litmus test, as you're basically defining rights as being human. I mean, if some aliens just dropped by on some space craft and had no language or communication method we could understand, that wouldn't give us the green light to slaughter them as if they were worthless and had no rights.

[Sunseeker]

That's not a solid litmus test, as you're basically defining rights as being human. I mean, if some aliens just dropped by on some space craft and had no language or communication method we could understand, that wouldn't give us the green light to slaughter them as if they were worthless and had no rights.

If aliens dropped by and could not possibly fathom how to communicate with humans, which really isn't that hard, I'd be curious how they got off their own mudball to begin with.

[damntree]

As weird as this seems, I feel we should await the formation of a greater dolphin civilization, and establish clearer communication with them. Just to make sure they aren't simultaneously passing any Kill All Humans resolutions into dolphin law.

I'd have to agree with this. We know they can balance a ball on their nose but can they be trusted?

[Doktor Faustus]

What a strange world we live in, whilst Syria is being pounded to dust, Somali is overrun by Islamists and Pakistan is almost in a civil war... we worry about the 'rights' of mammals that couldn't hack it on land.

Why do we care more for animals than our fellow man?

Seems like an inherent flaw humanity (especially in the West) has developed over the last 50 years.

And no, I do not roast cats or have carnal relations with squirrels.

[damntree]

http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/natural.html

Here you go.

Anyway, if I feed my pet rabbit lion meat, doesn't mean it's on top of the food chain
Only way humans can eat meat is because they use technology to process it.

Sorry this website is full of factual errors. The pH of the stomach is around 1-2. The average length of the small intestine is 23 feet. I don't know many people who are 2.3 feet tall as your website would have us believe. We don't have a chambered stomach or a colon designed for complex nutrient absorption like a ruminant or pseudo-ruminant. I hate to tell you but the only way we can eat some plant matter is to have technology to process it so that really doesn't prove anything. Not to mention we have forward facing eyes which is pretty clear indicator of being at least omnivorous.

[Extrazero8]

By he's logic, it would be ok to kill and eat all the useless humans too that aren't contributing to building those anti asteroid defenses (which don't even exist now btw).

Mentally retarded? - let's kill him and eat him
Sick or elderly? - get into our hamburgers
No college education or scientific degree? - chop em up and down the hatch

It's just stupid if you ask me. Besides, this has nothing to do with whales and dolphins anyway .. or other higher animals. People just kill them and hold them in captivity and torture them for stupid reasons like entertainment or trophies.

His point isn't that we should eat people. His point is that cows and chickens are stupid. Whales and dolphins are smarter than cows and chickens but still very stupid compared to the average human.

I also hope you understand that those were jokes.

[Syroco]

See my post on page 2. I can back up all those facts with sources if need be.

[Deleted]

As soon as dolphins declare their own rights, we can talk.

---------- Post added 2012-03-05 at 12:26 PM ----------

His point isn't that we should eat people. His point is that cows and chickens are stupid. Whales and dolphins are smarter than cows and chickens but still very stupid compared to the average human.

I also hope you understand that those were jokes.

My dog is also very smart. By the defininitions applied to dolphins and whales etc, he's actually a lot smarter than them. Maybe he should have equal rights aswell?

[Holy]

Dolphins are actually pretty close to us in terms of emotion I'd wager. They do a lot of things that very few animals, and sometimes only also humans, do. That said, I still think we are as completely alien to them as we are to them, so they might as well just be another animal.