the turtle scene
-
el_repetto — 20 years ago(December 18, 2005 07:13 PM)
yes, that is true. it's called odori-or dancing.
many people, especially girls, feel that is cruel and it's waning in popularity.
but keep in mind that that is the exception. in every country there are strange exceptions and they don't neccessarily reflect the culture as a whole.
in america some people eat buffallo balls or pig brains, that's pretty gross. but rare. -
Mulciber — 14 years ago(November 17, 2011 10:05 PM)
Please note that chefs in Japan who do this are trained as rigorously as physicians. They kill the animal quickly - the traditional methods are very similar to Jewish Kashruth practices. What makes the flesh continue to flutter is strictly a chemical reaction to having alcohol poured briskly over it. The fish has departed the condition of being alive long before.
-
willwebbimdb — 19 years ago(May 09, 2006 08:24 AM)
The most bizarre thing I ever saw in Japan (lived there for two years in the early 1990's) was at a restaurant with a large fish tank behind the bar. The chef scooped a fish out of the tank, chopped its head and tail off, chopped up the torso of the fish, stuck the head on one end of skewer, stuck the tail on the other end of the skewer, placed the skewer on a dish, placed the chopped up parts of the fish on top of the skewer and then served it up to the patron who had ordered it. All of this happened within a few minutes. The fish's mouth and tail were still moving when he served the fish!
-
el_repetto — 19 years ago(May 18, 2006 09:53 PM)
we already talked about that.
i've seen a place where they scoop a large fish out of the tank, cut of a small portion of meat, serve it as sashimi and put the STILL ALIVE fish back in the tank where it continues swimming around slowly until the next customer orders it and they cut off a little more!
let me ask you this: is it more humane to tear chickens apart with machines? is it more humane to force feed geese with metal tubes rammed down their throats, is it more humane to drop a lobster in boiling water?
one more thing: just because i can give examples of inhumane treatment of animals as food in other countries as well, that doesn't make the japanese examples any less inhumane.
if you are against animal cruelty there is no logical solution other than to become vegan or to hunt and prepare your own food in a humane way. how many of you are that dedicated to your moral position? -
rooprect — 19 years ago(June 14, 2006 07:05 AM)
if you are against animal cruelty there is no logical solution other than to become vegan or to hunt and prepare your own food in a humane way. how many of you are that dedicated to your moral position?
Actually lots. There are 5 million in India alone.
But you make some good points; obviously if people (or an entire culture) see nothing shocking about their behaviour, you can't change them overnight. But that doesn't mean you should throw your hands up and ignore the problem, especially with regard to your own behaviour.
I notice the biggest response to allegations of animal cruelty is "well it happens every day in slaughterhouses". Of course it does, but does that mean that we should condone it? Just because there's ethnic cleansing in parts of the world, does that give us the right to be racists ourselves?
This is known as a
tu quoque
fallacy.
Tu quoque
means "you too", and it implies that one immoral act is pardoned by pointing out another. Absurd, right?
I love what the American Humane Association has been doing since the late 70s, monitoring animal abuse in the [American] film industry. As a result, we no longer have gratuitous snuff films like
Cannibal Holocaust
and crap like that. Unfortunately the rest of the world hasn't caught on yet, so anything goes.
Like most Americans, I go to the movies assuming that I won't see real animals (or people for that matter!) killed on screen. That's why it's rather shocking when I get blindsided by a foreign film that has no such restraints. Just like food products must announce if they contain animal products, I wish movies would do so as well. Then we can all be happy, vegetarians and meat eaters alike! -
Nephilim-6 — 19 years ago(September 13, 2006 07:58 PM)
you do realise Cannibal Holocaust isn't an american movie. And it's NOT crap.
As for animal abuse.. As long as the animal is eaten I can't object to it because yes it also happens in slaughterhouses. And no I'm not going against my nature and become a vegan. Humans are omnivores not herbivores.
Ofcourse I respect those that are. But for me personally it's unnatural not to eat meat.
Did you ever notice that people who believe in creationism look realy un-evolved? - Bill Hicks -
rooprect — 19 years ago(September 13, 2006 09:36 PM)
Ofcourse I respect those that are. But for me personally it's unnatural not to eat meat.
We could go way off on a philosophical tangent here. Of course it's not "natural" for humans to be selective about diet. After all, we have 4 million years of flesh-ripping, crap-eating gluttony dictating how we behave. But the point of evolutionif you believe in evolutionis that a creature pushes the limits of what is "natural" and in so doing it excels and becomes something different.
Imagine prehistoric tadpole #1 telling prehistoric tadpole #2:
"It's not natural to crawl out of the ocean and live on dry land!"
Instead, prehistoric tadpole #2 decided to act
unnaturally
, and that's how we got amphibians and eventually mammals. Again, if you believe in evolution.
So what I'm saying is that we should disregard our brutish ancestors. Look into your own soul yearning for spiritual ascension. You have to admit there's something in there saying "The perfect creature is one that doesn't consumer others."
So, why not try to become that perfect creature? It'll probably take another 4 million years, but I'm proud to say that I'm doing my part.
-
vesna-14 — 18 years ago(October 15, 2007 04:12 PM)
why are you being so defensive?! I agree that the woman who posted the negative comments about hte japanese culture is wrong but that does not make the animal cruelty that is very common in exquisite japanese cousine (and i've studies it for 3 years) acceptable.
calm down a little.
thank you thank you thank you for proposing veganism - albeit passively. I'm vegan and hate the "i don't agree with killing an animal, but it tastes so good!" beep and i don't hink the initial comment was meant in america is better about food culture/animal cruelty than japan - simply that the turtle scene was a bit harsh. -
spyretto — 15 years ago(June 07, 2010 06:39 PM)
the natural order of things in the world we live in can be quite 'gross' considering its the law of bigger fish eats smaller fish but moreover different people and cultures have different sensibilities of what is gross and what isn't.
-
trog-oz — 20 years ago(January 13, 2006 01:23 PM)
It's no worse that when you go into a restaurant, select your live lobster from a tank and the chef drops in into boiling water to kill it and cook it. This is a common practice is many high class restaurants in the West.
-
none909 — 19 years ago(April 30, 2006 10:15 PM)
If the whole of America consumed 10% less beef, enough grain would be salvaged from cow factories to feed the 22 million people who die annually from hunger. Its not just animal cruelty, its got implications that affect everyone.
-
bjkane — 19 years ago(May 05, 2006 07:41 AM)
What about that scene in Oldboy when he eats the squid alive. It looked pretty real. That was crazy. And this movie was pretty cool. Especially that food fetish yakuza dude who introduced the movie by screaming at the dude in the theatre for eating potato chips loudly.
-
rooprect — 19 years ago(June 14, 2006 06:44 AM)
The squid scene in Oldboy
was
real. Actually they had to do it 4 times (4 squids) before they got it right. There's a pretty intelligent debate about it in the Oldboy imdb board.
http://imdb.com/board/10364569/board/thread/44467978
I'm always interested in hearing peoples' opinions on the matter as long as they can remain level headed and refrain from shouting insults at each other (as is usually the case). -
david-goble — 19 years ago(June 14, 2006 01:35 PM)
If the whole of America consumed 10% less beef, enough grain would be salvaged from cow factories to feed cows in other countries. The industrial grain fed to cows in 'cow factories' is in no way similar to the grain you eat in your bread or prepare in a rice cooker. Regardless, if America consumed 10% less beef a year, do you suggest they replace their beef consumption with nothing? Or should the 22 million people who die every year from hunger continue dying in order to feed the 250 million people in the U.S. who are now 10% hungrier?
Considering this is a discussion (or an attempt at one) about Japanese animal cruelty, you should take a look at the living conditions of Kobe Beef Japanese Black cattle (Tashima-Ushi). In Japan that beef sells for over $100 a pound and quite a bit more in the U.S. They live a more pampered life and eat better grain than most Americans. Every cow dies, whether by man or by nature, so why not treat them really well when they are alive? Is it more humane to give them a good life and the best food and then kill them and sell them to restaurants the world over? Or to set them 'free' to wander about on an island until they die of natural causes? (Natural Causes include starvation, dehydration, being killed by hunters, and in very rare cases, old age.)