After two years of transcontinental haggling, the commission had been expected to replace today’s hunting ban with limited hunting quotas. Supporters of the policy change had argued that by specifying how many whales of a given species could be sustainably harvested over a 10-year period, and by tightening or eliminating current loopholes through which whaling nations like Japan and Norway kill the marine mammals for “scientific” purposes, the new measure would effectively reduce the number of whales slaughtered each year.
via www.nytimes.com
This article is the kind of nonsense that actually gives a bad name to worthy efforts to save the whales. For the life of me I cannot see how the author (or perhaps the sub-editor) made the logical leap from the observation that dolphins check out their anal slits if you show them a mirror to the assertion that whales have souls. If you check out some of the author’s other articles on NYTimes.com you will see she has even written one about how Brussel Sprouts really want to go on living too.