Are whales and dolphins smart enough to get special rights?

reply to post by Sinter Klaas
I posted without reading the thread. I've just gone back to read other replies and completely agree with you. Last week there was an interview with a marine biologist with a focus on the 'culture' of whales.

She explained how Right Whales were thought to be fairly mysterious and solitary critters. Recent improvements in tagging and technology have shown that they are, in fact, part of societies and pods. The incredible thing is they can be 50 miles apart and act in concert. Instead of being solitary, they actually respond to each other across vast distances.

She went on to describe how diverse groups have different methods of calf-rearing...culture? Some groups share parenting whilst others will 'babysit' the young while the blood mother is away. It was a thought-provoking interview.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Most definitely
I will watch the interview in a minute I have not seen it yet.

The emotional bond in Killer whale families is known for a long time. Only human arrogance is reason for denying animal intelligence and emotions.

I have a book from the urly seventies where is already written about a female that was so upset with the death of her calf she got depressed and eventually killed herself by starving herself to death.

If that doesn't ring a bell people have to be very ignorant.


Communication among whales is awesome. Within the oceans sound is a far better way to communicate. Water is a far better conduit for sound waves. Especially low frequencies can travel across the globe.

The Blue whale is the largest creature that ever lived. It can produce sounds from.

Estimates made by Cummings and Thompson (1971) suggest that source level of sounds made by blue whales are between 155 and 188 decibels when measured relative to a reference pressure of one micropascal at one metre .

Combine this with a low frequency wave and water as a conduit and you can wake up someone on the other side of the ocean.

Remarkable really.

Edit.
Hmpff.. Your link did not linked to the interview huh...
Can you give a link to it ?

[edit on 5/23/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

People don't like to be wrong in general, so even though dolphins do need rights, they mostly likely won't get them.

We as species have a big problem, we are intelligent, we are so intelligent that we start to think too much and them we create some weird ideas.

First idea: we are bad, very bad
Second idea: Nature is good, very good.
Third idea: We must protect nature
Fourth idea: Dolphins have right, we must protect them

And after that i already imagine what would follow, a gazelle have rights, if a lion if hungry well it doesnt matter, the gazelle have right to live so shot the lion because he is bad.

Predators are bad because they kill, lets kill all predators, starting with sharks because they eat dolphins, or maybe we can modify their genes so they start eating grass so we can be happy because thats good.

Is absurd, a lot of people complain because we interfere with Nature, but at the same time they want to interfere because nature in the end is not what they think it must be, we make more damage to the nature doing this that killing animals and taking territories.

P.S. What will happen if a whale eat a dolphin? charge the whale with 1st degree murder? and them to the chair? lol

What will happen when a dolphin kill a porpoise? charge the dolphin with murder? or the porpoise wont have rights? or maybe it will?

What will happen when dolphins kill dolphins? or when they kill baby dolphins? Crimes against Dolphinity? Genocide?

What will happen when a pod fight againts another pod for females? call the UN? intervene to stop the pod war? charge the winning pod with kidnapping?

[edit on 23-5-2010 by MonteroReal]

reply to post by MonteroReal


Strange reasoning you show here.

The only thing they need protection from is us.

The rules would not be for the animals but for us. So we can be convinced not to harm them with a threat of punishment if we do.

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
reply to post by MonteroReal

 

Strange reasoning you show here.

The only thing they need protection from is us.

The rules would not be for the animals but for us. So we can be convinced not to harm them with a threat of punishment if we do.

Your reasoning is the strange one, if dolphins and whales have rights, then they need protection not only from us, is absurd to say that they have a right to live so they must be protected, but only from humans because any other species can kill them with not problem.

And another thing, there are a lot of animals we eat, they dont have rights because they are food, what will you do in the places where dolphins and whales are food?

reply to post by MonteroReal


You think my reasoning is strange ?

I don't think I've mentioned that they should have rights.
Only the article from the OP did. No need to defend yourself.
I was not offensive. If it did feel like it, I will offer you my apologies.

Only thing I'm sharing here are results from other people studies.
Killer whales happen to be one of my favorite animals. I've gathered a lot of info on them over the years.

I responded as I did because I thought it was strange. Usually people explain why they think so, instead of returning the same question without taking the effort to read what there has been said.

I agree with you on the food part yet, even those animals have rights. Well people have rules to follow but it's for the animals ( reasonable ) wellbeing.

So... I'll ask again.
I'm sorry I think your post is strange. Will you please explain to me why you think so ?