Posted on 09/09/2007 6:30:36 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Today: September 09, 2007 at 5:5:7 PDT
Calif. Gray Whale Shot With Machine Gun
NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) -
An injured California gray whale was swimming out to sea Saturday after being shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state, officials said.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. The extent of the whale's injuries were not immediately known.
Tribe members were being held by the Coast Guard but had not been charged, said Mark Oswell, a spokesman for the law enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A preliminary report said the whale was shot with a .50-caliber machine gun, Oswell said.
Coast Guard officials created a 1,000-yard safety zone around the injured whale, which was shot about a mile east of Neah Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The whale had begun heading to sea Saturday afternoon, Oswell said.
Although the tribe has subsistence fishing rights to kill whales, Oswell said preliminary information indicates the whale may have been shot illegally.
"We allow native hunts for cultural purposes. However, this does not appear to be of that nature so far," he said.
The Makah Tribe has more than 1,000 members and is based in Neah Bay.
A call to tribal officials was not immediately returned on Saturday. Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson told The Seattle Times that the tribe has been seeking an exemption from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so that it could take up to five gray whales per year. However, Johnson said the tribe had not yet secured that exemption for a new hunt.
--
Gambling is part of their culture.
Yes, I know. There was a lot of buffalo at that time though.
>When they don’t eat what they take,<
According to the article, the carcass sank in the ocean.
So much for eating it. Guess they now have an excuse to torture and kill another one.
Yes. There are trouble makers in every group. I think the 5 busted here, didn't have tribal authority to do this. The numbers aren't right and the 5 were turned over to the tribal police.
While we generally define murder as 'unjustifiable homicide' ranging in degrees from one to three ('premeditated' to 'reflex crime of passion'?), the objective ethics of cases like this suggests that the unnecessary, unjustified killing of a sentient mammal should become criminalized and prosecuted as 'fourth degree murder'.
Thanks for the post with the hunt info. This apparently wasn’t a valid tribal hunt, since it looks like there were only 5 hunters, that were later turned over to tribal police. I wonder what the traditional punishment for something like this is.
LOL! Who do you think you are, coyote?
Tribal police, eh? HAHAHA! Exactly zip will happen to them.
I don’t know. I don’t know how they do things. If I was the chief, I’d be pissed and go Apache on them. It’s a cultural thing.
Good grief.
No, I would suppose a coyote could be thought 'justified' in killing for food as A.) necessary, given no practical alternatives. and B.) probably incapable of recognizing unnecessary killing as unethical.
Humans have a responsibility to not murder innocent beings, and our laws should reflect that. Don't you agree?
Charlie Brown's not home.
Indian tribes have more rights than the rest of us.
You are coyote aren't you.
"justified' in killing for food as A.) necessary, given no practical alternatives. and B.) probably incapable of recognizing unnecessary killing as unethical."
Those are my chickens and I hunt.
It’s very, very, very political. Also, everyone is related to everyone else.
“They hunted the buffalo for food, lodging, clothes, tools and furnature. Their spiritual culture considered the animals sacred and they didn’t kill them for the sake of killing.”
You may want to read some history. There are many accounts of Indians on hunts killing buffalo just for the tongues and leaving the rest of the carcass. The only time the whole animal was used was when the village (either stationary or on the move) was nearby. Simple logistics. Hunting parties were limited in what they could carry. The white buffalo hunters always took the hides (that’s primarily what they killed the bufffalo for), and some of the meat. Indians could be pretty wasteful. The mythology of the American Indian as some kind of heroic environmentalist is swill poured by do-gooders who never saw an Indian in the flesh (and likely wouldn’t have survived the experience if he or she had).
Yeah, I don't do myths though.
"There are many accounts of Indians on hunts killing buffalo just for the tongues and leaving the rest of the carcass. "
The annual hunt was for the big numbers and the collections of resources, like the hide they made tepees, clothes, robes and furniture with, and the bones that were used for tools. I think the hunt for tongues was simply an excursion for fresh ceremonial meat.
"The only time the whole animal was used was when the village (either stationary or on the move) was nearby."
Right, but they followed the migrations.
"The white buffalo hunters always took the hides (that’s primarily what they killed the bufffalo for), and some of the meat."
the primary reason the whites killed the buffalo in great numbers is because the US Army wanted the native's resources destroyed. The rest was decided by those that did the job.
That may be true but remember those rights are only good on their reservation. If you have ever been to one of the poorer ones, I doubt if you would change places with them. Not all tribes have rich Casinos, matter of fact, only a small percentage of them do and most of them are not getting rich.
Agreed!
At some point we humans will have to come to terms with exactly what levels of sentience, sapience, intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness constitute a being which should be respected and treated as we would expect to be treated -- as sentient, sapient, intelligent, self-aware, and conscious beings. One day we may realize that this applies to dolphins, whales, chimps, and perhaps even horses, canines, elephants and other mammals. One day this may also apply to artificial intelligence -- given that it has a level of sentience, sapience, intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness which constitute a being which should be respected and treated as we would expect to be treated -- as "people" (even though they are not "human").
One day we may encounter other beings from other star systems who may regard humans as NOT being adequately, in their perspective, sentient, sapient, intelligent, self-aware, and conscious to be regarded as no more than slaves or perhaps no more than animals to be hunted for sport.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.