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Norwegians
would rather eat whale meat than kangaroo meat. In Australia it is the other
way around. In modern industrial societies there are, in general, many taboos
connected to the consumption of wild animals, whether it be deer, seal or
wild birds. Every year, about 60,000 deer are killed in Britain, about 900,000
roe deer are killed in Germany and in the US state of Montana alone, there
are 100,000 elk hunters. Norwegians would never dream of going fox hunting,
but neither would they stop importing British products because they have
different eating and hunting habits. In 1993, British Prime Minister, John
Major, claimed that Norwegian minke whaling was incompatible with Norwegian
membership of the European Union. Never before has anyone implied a country
might be excluded from the company of the European Union on the grounds
of environmental or animal welfare issues. Ultimately the only relevant
environmental question concerning minke whaling is whether or not the size
of the catch is within the reproductive capabilities of the stock. Peter
Sandøe, leader of the Danish Ethical Council concerning Animals,
says: "...unless one completely rejects that we have the right to kill
animals in order to produce human essentials, and thereby choose to become
vegetarian, there are no significant arguments against the Norwegian harvest
of minke whales". |
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