Let the Whales Save Themselves

The mutilated and sadly deceased sperm whale which was washed ashore at Newport Beach, in Sydney recently, got me thinking about the mysterious phenomenon of whales beaching themselves. The ten metre Sperm whale at Newport needs to be moved because its rotting flesh is stinking the place out, and its blood is attracting sharks, but if it was alive when it landed, then people would have flooded the beach and worked together day and night to save it.

Scientists do not yet understand why whales beach themselves. I think their best bet is to contact Science Officer Spock, from the planet Vulcan, and ask him to communicate directly with the whales and ask them why they do it. As this is a somewhat unrealistic suggestion, we must simply accept the fact that beaching is a part of the life cycle of whales. It happens. It's a natural behaviour.

That being the case, why do we interfere? Why do we expend so much time, effort and money to move the stranded aquatic beasts back into the ocean? There must be more to it than the selfish desire to avoid putrefaction and grab a spot on the evening news.

We like whales. That's why we do it. They are the gentle giants of the seven seas. Naturally we want to save them, either from commercial hunters or self destruction, because it is inhumane to allow suffering. Even the Bible says that the righteous man is kind to his animals. Motivated by compassion, efforts to help these cuddly cetaceans are commendable.

However, there are some who take kindness to animals to extremes by placing animal welfare above human welfare. These people dispute mankind's God given dominion over the earth. They advocate vegetarianism because they say it's cruel to kill and eat animals. We should shut down entire industries and cause people to lose their jobs because cows don't die happily. Even if it is natural for whales to beach themselves, we should still try to save them.

Such people have their priorities all wrong. All the energy and passion invested in the protection of animals and other environmental causes would be much better spent on trying to eradicate human suffering and misery. Let the whales save themselves.

Whales V Babies

An article by Sean Parnell in The Australian newspaper on Monday January 18, 2010, was about the imminent scrapping of the controversial initiative which current opposition leader Tony Abbott put in place while he was Health Minister in the former Howard government. He funded a Catholic charity to help run a pregnancy hotline designed to hopefully dissuade women from having abortions. This was part of his efforts to lower the abortion rate in Australia.

Some said, good on you Mr Abbott while others said, not your business Mr Abbott. These comments simply reflected the well known divide between the Pro Life and Pro Choice camps. The abortion issue is not one which I wish to directly tackle here, but I do want to mention some statistics.

Rough estimates put the number of abortions in Australia each year at 100 000. According to The Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform( a pro life organization),each year around the world, 42 million abortions occur. That's 115 000 every day. 42 million! That's twice the population of Australia. Every year. The Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform says that 1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).

Take a quick look at another killer of people: cancer. In 2005, cancer killed 83,000 Australians and 7.6 million people worldwide. Less than abortions but still shocking numbers.

Here's the thing. In light of these statistics, I find it hard to get worked up about whales being killed and Tasmanian Devils being wiped out by their own nasty version of cancer. Sure, it's sad and I don't want to see any species become extinct but numerous species have already vanished from the earth and my life is really none the poorer for their absence. How terrible a tragedy would it really be if whales disappeared from our oceans?

People have always fought for what matters to them. They sacrifice time and money for the things they value but for most people these treasures are much closer to home than the Tasmanian wilderness or the Southern Ocean. Nevertheless, most of us want to make a difference in the world, don't we? So good on those who fight for the helpless whales, the poor Tasmanian devils and the abused environment but don't tell me that they matter more than people.

As long as innocent unborn children are being murdered for convenience, I won't shed a single tear or give a second thought to those damned whales, and I'll pray for the success of those who are in a position to dissuade women from having abortions, and for those researching a cure for cancer because people are more important than creatures.