Finners Be Damned!

I am about to convey some very disturbing information.
About animal cruelty.
If you are a real animal lover [and I hope that you are] you may not even want to read this blog any further.
No.
Read it anyway!
I am opposed to all forms of animal cruelty.
I've written of this BEFORE, and... BEFORE! And ELSEWHERE. And WHATEVER.
I hate to even HEAR of it, taking place. So, I am not even sure why I am writing this particular blog… I guess it is just to bring to our awareness the needless plight of some wonderful creatures.
In this case, sharks.

I will preface my upcoming horrid little paragraph by saying that I personally believe that our human spirituality is integrally tied to our treatment of animals.
What I mean is → I do no not believe that a person can be spiritually healthy, and either delight in, or engage in, willful cruelty to animals.
What I mean is → Anyone who wilfully delights in, or engages in animal cruelty, has nothing to teach me about spirituality.
What I mean is → One of the first things I would ask someone who is attempting to teach me something about spirituality, is “How do you treat animals?”
I think that [spiritually speaking] an answer to that question is even more important than knowing about how they treat other people!

So… I guess this blog is about an entire GROUP of people that have nothing to say to me, about spirituality.
They are called “finners”.
They cut the fins off of sharks.

I found out about this in the book I mentioned the other night… The World Without Us.
In it, Alan Weisman tells us:
In Hong Kong, shark fin soup commands up to $100 per bowl. After slicing off their pectoral and dorsal fins, finners throw mutilated sharks, still alive, back into the sea. Rudderless, they sink to the bottom and suffocate. Despite campaigns to ban the delicacy… an estimated 100 million sharks die this way every year.

I just think that is so sad, and horrible.
It makes me ashamed of being the same species as a “finner.”

Weisman then quotes marine biologist Enric Sala, who puts it in perspective:
“In a year, humans take 100 million sharks, while sharks attack maybe 15 people. This is not a fair fight.”

Check out this AWESOME VIDEOCLIP of what I wish upon the next hapless finner that falls off the edge of his boat!
Ooooh…. I shouldn’t say that. It’s not very “spiritual” of me!

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