… apologies for all the (delicious) dead animals on this blog of late. Yet here are more creatures put in pain for our pleasure.
I’d avoided the usual Japanese tourist “attractions” — fish markets … until Hokodate.
At that seaport it’s near impossible for a passerby to avoid the cruelty zoo.
Crabs and squid seem to object more strenuously than the rest.
The shark tried to make a run for it.
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Let’s say you believe in trying to reduce global warming. Like this guy:
… There’s not a single person who’s done more to fight climate change than Bill McKibben. Through thoughtful books, ubiquitous magazine contributions, and, most notably, the founding of 350.org (an international non-profit dedicated to fighting global warming), McKibben has committed his life to saving the planet. For all the passion fueling his efforts, though, there’s something weirdly amiss in his approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: neither he nor 350.org will actively promote a vegan diet. …
… as a recent report from the World Preservation Foundation confirms, ignoring veganism in the fight against climate change is sort of like ignoring fast food in the fight against obesity. Forget ending dirty coal or natural gas pipelines. As the WPF report shows, veganism offers the single most effective path to reducing global climate change. …
read more on Freakonomics – Agnostic Carnivores and Global Warming: Why Enviros Go After Coal and Not Cows
Rick McCharles 
Hey Rick, stop picking on my cows 😉 You trying to kill me?
Seriously though, I hope reducing greenhouse emissions never becomes a battle of diet preference. There are so many other more important ways to target that problem. Reducing the world’s growing population and fossil fuel consumption should be our primary targets I think. Good on these guys for keeping that in perspective
We may not always have the luxury of living in a society where we can get our food delivered to our supermarket, certainly even natural disasters such as the ones in Thailand right now stand to highlight the rapid collapse of things we take for granted, food and water delivery being way at the top of the list. Our cushy, opulent and wasteful way of life makes vegetarianism even an option. When your mangos, carrots and lettuce stop showing up in the middle of winter or during a natural disaster I’d love to see people sticking to their high and mighty ethical convictions about living food. In the meantime I’d be dining on squirrel, dog, cat or alligator or anything else that moves.
Hey George,
When Atticus Finch saw a rabid dog coming down the street, he shot and killed it. But it wasn’t something he was happy about and certainly not something he would have done on any ordinary day.
Like you, in the event of some crazy stupid disaster that I can’t even imagine right now, I’d probably shoot my own dog to feed my family. But I don’t pretend that makes it ok for me to shoot her tomorrow when I have lots of other options available.
Love, peace, and kisses,
Brian