Usually these countries eat their OWN dogs and horses. Whales are part of a shared eco-system. (i.e. they exist in International waters)

Bah.Much better be a cannibal.Flesh,yummy.

Yum! I had some whale (tail) sashimi in Roppongi last November. It was simply awesome!

I still prefer flesh.

eating whale is ok but not if that species is under threat of extinction ! - in that case eat chicken MOFO'S !

Meat's meat. An animal's an animal. It's just like hunting for anything else. I don't see how it's morally wrong at all. If it wasn't legal I would have to say they were doing someting wrong, but it is. As long as they don't run a species into extinction I view it as the same as any other animal being used for food. I DO however have a thing against those chasers. They risk HUMAN lives so they can save a whale's by running their ship into the Japanese'. What they're doing isn't right, what the Japanese are doing isn't right or wrong.

I don't care about the human lives.

I think you would care if they were your family.
These people being put at risk all have families somewhere out there... And the activities of the renegade groups out there is literally sickening to me. Terrorism, if you ask me. Sea Shepard... *choke*

Is it still ok if you shoot a harpoon into an animals back.... chase down the wounded animal for hours, haul it on board and hack it to pieces while it's still alive?

If they killed the animals quickly and painlessly like they do livestock this would be MUCH less of an issue. I'd even be inclined to agree with you to an extent.

Without the Sea shepherd we'd not be aware of the brutality of the Japanese whalers.

Though I agree that violating International maritime law by boarding and ramming other ships is a bit extreme.. I'm glad that in many cases they managed to scare whales off before the harpoon ships could catch them.

Thanks to the sea shepherd ships the Japanese whaling fleet failed to catch the amount of whales it was aiming to catch. Also thanks to the sea shepherd we know what they are up to. Currently a Japanese navy vessel is in pursuit of the sea shepherd ships in an attempt to confiscate the sea shepherd's video footage. The Japanese whaling fleet continually attempts to hide it's activities. Why?

I hope that the next time Japan tries to whale in the South Pacific the Australian and New Zealand airforce and navy works together to track the whaling fleet and scare the whales off. There is nothing wrong under International law to scare the whales away from the Japanese.