Dinner

Just came back from wedding dinner at Paramount Hotel Sibu. Had a quick thought; the older generation were talking about living in villages and all. And I heard about them catching eagles, selling baby crocs for RM 30.00 each, killing snakes for their bladder.. and that night I did the very first of many deed that I should have done many many years back; refusing to consume shark fin soup.

Well.. you know sharks are killed for their fins, and the killing is ...simply put it, massacre, inhumane, am disheartened really when I saw the video of workers stripping those sharks off their fins while they're still alive, then kicked the helpless, fin-less fish back into the water, and they were still alive! They tried to swim but without their fin they were just as vulnerable as any of their prey. Moreover, the smell of blood drew more and more sharks onto the scene, and they relentlessly devoured their pitiful fin-less comrades without hesitation.

Almost 90% of the shark species poses no threat to human. Only certain sharks; great white, bull, oceanic white tip, hammerhead poses threat to human. Other sharks such as whale shark, megamouth shark, blue shark, reef shark, nurse shark, and basking shark are actually gentle enough for us to handle without fear. Shark attack rarely occur nowadays, although it is still an issue at beaches in South Africa, beaches in California and Australia. But consider the ratio, a shark attacks a human, and in return we kill 10,000 sharks a year. In less than 100 years, only 25-30 fatalities worldwide, compared to 30-100 million sharks killed by fishermen each year. (stat: courtesy of http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sharkattack/tidbits.html)

Apart from sharks, other animals that I mentioned above are endangered as well. The crocodiles, for example, are driven off their rivers by hunters hunting for their skin. The eagles are kept as pet, and in North America, snakes are becoming exotic pets along with lions and tigers.
C'on people.. lions and tigers do not belong to North America. You have trouble keeping cougars away from your fences, and yet you still let your child keep a tiger as pet ?! Statistic shows that there are more tigers and lions in America than their mother land~India and Africa.

As for snakes, the Ibans in Sarawak like the taste of snakes( that's what I heard from the elders' conversation). Chinese consume snakes too, their magical "snake oil" provides instant relieve for ailments. Yesterday I read an article in National Geographic website about a species of quail long thought to be extinct, yet was found in local market. It was sold and never seen again. Perhaps, it was the last of its species...
Also there was an article about an ugly monster, a frilled shark. It lives kilometers below sea level, on the seabed. It is so rare that a specimen swim to the surface, and unfortunately it was caught by fishermen. And there was this megamouth shark which is ultraaaa rare.. being dubbed as the RAREST SHARK SPECIES IN THE WORLD...there was one caught by fishermen in the Philippines, and it was the 41st megamouth shark ever found ! see how rare it is...

Ok... Now people, I dont know who on Earth would come and read my blog as I am not really that enchanting, so no one actually bothers about me. But if you were unlucky, googling up something else but ended up coming into my blog and read about this, it is time for you to do something for mother nature. Stop exotic animal trading, Stop the killing of snakes and crocs, and Stop wasting food, paper, Stop consuming shark fin soup. We can make a difference. Just lie to your dad and mom about strange taste in the soup or whatsoever. Let that soup disappear from your menu, you still have plenty of stuff to eat... moreover, most young people nowadays are plagued by weight problem eh? :-)