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  • WEDNESDAY JULY 18 2007 4:00 PM

Why the Fuck is China Still Pulling this Shark Fin Soup Bullshit?

Submitted by Rahodeb

Edited by Rahodeb

Tags: China, Endangered Species, 2008 Olympics, Shark Fin Soup, Sharks, Tigers, Dolphins



It's hard to write about China without writing a fucking treatise. There are just so many critical avenues down which one can go: female infanticide, sex-selective abortions, baby girls relegated to orphanages, or "Dying Rooms" as they've become known. There's the issue of Tibet, problems of free speech, repression of religious and spiritual groups.

Last year, the Chinese succeeded in driving the rare, white, 20 million-year-old baiji dolphin to extinction in the Yangtze River. Now they seem poised to inflict the same fate on sharks. According to the conservation group WildAid, sharks could face extinction within a generation from overfishing of their fins.

More than 90 percent of shark fin is consumed in China and demand is growing rapidly as the economy develops leading to more sharks being caught, many illegally in areas that are supposed to be protected, according to the group WildAid.

Hammerhead, Great White and Basking sharks were some of the species at risk.

"These animals have been here for 400 million years and they may disappear in one generation, not to provide people with basic food, but for a solely luxury item," executive director Peter Knights told a news conference.

The group said shark fin is becoming cheaper and eaten by a growing number of people in China -- perhaps by around 100 million people a year.

"Precisely the role China plays is one of unsustainable demand. The demand for shark fin soup as it now stands, and as it's set to increase, cannot be sustained by wild shark populations," said Steve Trent, WildAid president.

The hunting of shark fins is wasteful and barbaric. Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off while they are alive, and then they are thrown back into the water where, because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death.

Yum! Totally worth it!

Don't even get me started on tigers in China, where they farm them for body parts, and where poaching and habitat destruction has decimated about 95% of the population.

See what I mean? Kind of hard to write about one Chinese issue without launching into a full-fledged treatise. How the hell did they get the 2008 Olympics?

Zhai jian, pretty animals. See you again...in my dreams.

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Comments
Cassiel

Cassiel

Aurora, CO
September 2004

JUL 18, 2007 04:10 PM

China scares the fuck out of me, not only for the reasons mentioned at the beginning of the article, but also all the bad food products coming out of their country as of late, as well as their wonderful work in Sudan and their massive military build-up...not to mention their power in the U.N. and the Olympics coming up (which should be boycotted)

Vanessa

Vanessa

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

JUL 18, 2007 04:11 PM

frown

China scares me too.

NinjaTech

NinjaTech

Minneapolis, MN
November 2003

JUL 18, 2007 04:17 PM

It's about time a nation stood up the shark menace of the deep.

Sharks = aquatic terrorists

BigBadDaddy

BigBadDaddy

Portland, OR
June 2003

JUL 18, 2007 04:17 PM



How the hell did they get the 2008 Olympics?



The same reason the rest of the planet puts up with their long laundry list of bad behavior. China makes WalMart and the rest of their ilk BILLIONS. It's about human greed plain and simple.

TheCoolerKing

TheCoolerKing

NEWSWIRE

Los Angeles, CA

JUL 18, 2007 04:21 PM

Ugh... That's awful...

It should be legalised only if you can get the fin with your bare hands, without the use of scuba gear or weapons.

Seems fair.

Cassiel

Cassiel

Aurora, CO
September 2004

JUL 18, 2007 04:22 PM

Vanessa said:
frown

China scares me too.



*hug*

pastthetaste

pastthetaste

I'm lost
February 2004

JUL 18, 2007 04:23 PM

"because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death."

it'd be bad enough to die that way as a human, but drowning as a fish...fuck.

Nokturn

Nokturn

United Kingdom
April 2006

JUL 18, 2007 04:41 PM

China was supposed to clean up its act on various issues as part of the agreement for them to host the Olympics.
They seem to have done sweet fuck all except piss up the world some more.
There's a Free Tibet petition for the UK to call them to task on this agreement but does anybody know if there's a worldwide one?

Doesn't help the sharks tho frown

wenis

wenis

San Francisco, CA
July 2006

JUL 18, 2007 04:48 PM

poor sharks.
frown

unfiltrator

unfiltrator

San Francisco, CA
April 2004

JUL 18, 2007 04:49 PM

We have some bad boys on this planet that need to go sit in the corner for a minute and think about what they've done.

aleksa

aleksa

Tacoma, WA
April 2006

JUL 18, 2007 04:52 PM

Poor sharks -- and dolphins, tigers, bears, dogs, cats.... Pretty long list in that country.

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

JUL 18, 2007 04:55 PM

i think we're dangerously close to being our own plague of locusts.

Metaverse

Metaverse

USA
March 2005

JUL 18, 2007 05:08 PM

boycott the olympics. it sucks for the athletes who train for years for it, but sometimes it is needed.

Cliche_Guevara

Cliche_Guevara

Australia
January 2006

JUL 18, 2007 05:11 PM

NinjaTech said:
It's about time a nation stood up the shark menace of the deep.

Sharks = aquatic terrorists



Exactly! I'm sure if people dig hard enough they'll discover the 'evil-doer' sharks are concealing Weapons of Mass Destruction

SockPuppet

SockPuppet

I'm lost
July 2006

JUL 18, 2007 05:11 PM

d20 said:
i think we're dangerously close to being our own plague of locusts.



We're there. We are the next mass extinction; happening now, on a planet near you.

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