Third, laws, constitutions, treaties and even court decisions are open to debate, opposition and protest. Each of these is a sacred document. But the Makah treaty, like all the other categorical examples, does not live in a vacuum. All laws, treaties and international agreements interact dynamically. PAWS does not believe it is necessary for any species to have these qualities before we speak against their suffering and abuse.
Commercial whalers are unable, by their own admission, to kill whales instantaneously.
The young gray whale the Makah killed reportedly took at least eight minutes to die, struggling to escape the pain all the while. For six billion people, the human ecology, our relationship with a living earth, must change. We are now forging that relationship with the environment and the life therein. The effort by the Makah to resume whaling does not stand alone, isolated from others wishing to kill whales. In fact, it has furthered the commercial whalers agenda.