Many species throughout the animal kingdom demonstrate behaviors and abilities just as complex as those demonstrated by whales. Another major objection to whaling is that it is an inhumane practice carried out unnecessarily. The best we can hope for in killing animals is that death be as quick and as nearly painless as possible. Some whaling-ban advocates feel that whaling has no place in the contemporary world. They point to the fact that many industrialized countries, despite having engaged in commercial whaling twenty or thirty years ago, are now fervent opponents of whaling.
Anthropologists believe otherwise.
The societies that have abandoned whaling hunted whales principally for oil. Indeed, the IWC was established in part to ensure the profitability of the whale-oil business, which it did by setting quotas measured in units of oil. When substitutes for whale oil became available in the 1970s, nations that whaled primarily for oil stopped hunting whales. Things were different in other nations, especially Norway and Japan, where whaling is an ancient occupation worthy of the respect and support that Americans award to, say, the running of a farm. The Japanese who come from a long line of whalers have deeply held moral beliefs about maintaining their family tradition.