I

was going to write “Why are Asians killing animals?” but there might be a viral video of a Westerner treating an animal cruelly in the same week as this article’s publication.

The point is, in several Asian countries there are major industries involving the killing of endangered animals for impractical but highly profitable purposes.

In contrast to a slaughterhouse or a farm, these animals are hunted down in the wild. In several cases, they are mutilated with their prized body parts taken and they are left bleeding to death. Traditionally populations around the Arctic needed whale meat for food, and the demand for whale oil and fat was extremely popular in the early 20th century.

Japan saw the whaling industry as the pride of its nation — if the British and the Americans had their rubber and pineapple plantations in Malaya and the Philippines, then the Japanese had their whaling ships ruling the waters of Korea and the far northern Pacific.

Japan consumed whale meat in large amounts following the end of the World War II and the recovery period, until it was removed from school lunches in the 1970s. Although whale meat was never a favorite, successive Japanese governments insisted on its importance to their food supply.

Japan then claimed that the main purpose of its whaling activity was for scientific research. By the 1990s, Japan had won support from Southeast Asian and Pacific nations while politically clashing with Australia and New Zealand over whaling in the South Pacific.

The cited scientific research projects usually look at stock numbers and the feeding ecology of various whale species, although Japan never answers the questions why these investigations lead to the killing of the whales, why there are more fishermen on board than marine scientists or why there are no widely circulated papers as a result of this research.

The whaling controversy often raises cultural (or racial) concerns. While many Japanese do not pay attention to the whaling issue, they get the impression that Western environmentalists are racists.

Certainly there is no famous Japanese or Asian anti-whaling activist, and cable programs on the whaling war show white Australian/New Zealand activists against Japanese whalers.

Japanese politicians believe that Japan is singled out compared to Scandinavian whaling countries, although those countries do not send their ships far into the Antarctic nor do they use the scientific research cover. In the end, Japan’s staunch defense of whaling is a mystery.

Worse, now South Korea is interested in following Japanese footsteps, citing a tradition of whale consumption.

There is, however, another long-range fishing that is highly profitable and also disheartening. Japan consumes 80 percent of Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna, usually as sushi (mixed with rice) and sashimi (as sliced raw meat).

The most popular varieties are maguro (tuna meat) and otoro (tuna belly). To keep up with the demand, juvenile and young Atlantic bluefin tunas are caught.

Japanese diners are puzzled when questioned by Western journalists on the sustainability of bluefin tuna — surely there is always tuna available for them.

Sushi/sashimi chefs believe that it is an honor to serve otoro. The Japanese media hardly report on the issue, and Japanese fishermen claim that any fishing ban would benefit Korean fishermen with the popularity of
Korean cuisine rising worldwide.

There is yet another controversial fish dish from Asia — shark fin soup. It is one of the most prized foods in Chinese culture, although shark fin itself is quite tasteless.

The taste comes from the soup. More important than the taste is the status. The serving of the soup symbolizes respect to the guest and the prestige of the host, which makes it a compulsory item in wedding banquets and business dinners.

Naturally, some Chinese claim that it is good for the skin, heart and sexual organs, and even in preventing cancer, although there is no evidence for the latter. A bowl of shark fin soup is not much different to a bowl of vegetable soup in terms of vitamin and mineral content.

The fins are obtained by catching wild sharks, cutting off the fins, and then throwing the bleeding sharks back into the sea. Hong Kong is the top importer of shark fins with supplies coming from Europe, Indonesia and North America.

While Hong Kong diners have cut down their shark fin soup consumption, the growing number of Chinese middle class visiting Hong Kong keeps the demand high.

Luckily, governments and businesses in Chinese-speaking countries have been quite responsive in addressing the controversy behind shark fin soup. Among big names that have banned shark fin soup are the Peninsula and Shangri-La hotels, Hong Kong Disneyland, Singapore’s Cold Storage supermarket, and the government of Taiwan. Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming also campaigns against shark fin soup consumption.

Hong Kong politicians, the Chinese seafood industry and Chinese-American lobby groups say that the campaign against shark fin soup is racist, citing that cod and caviar consumption among Westerners is also unsustainable.

The ethnic Chinese’ strongest case for serving shark fin soup, however, is its cultural connotations. While a wedding couple can demand a shark fin soup-free banquet, their parents will say that its absence will be offensive to their bosses, business partners and other family members.

At least these animal parts can be eaten, but Asians also have a weird fetish for parts of animals one cannot eat. The rise in living standards in China has led to the rise in demand for elephant ivory, rhinoceros horns and tiger and bear parts (in the name of health and medicine). Kenyan authorities arrested 10 Chinese nationals smuggling ivory in 2009 and recently uncovered the shipping of pieces of ivory worth a billion dollars destined for Batam.

During the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference held in Bangkok this March, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pledged to tighten controls on Thailand’s domestic ivory trade, although she gave no timeline.

Outside the conference venue, one could find ivory products with a wide range of prices, as Bangkok is the largest ivory market in Asia. Besides being sold as souvenirs and religious objects, ivory amulets are essential for the Thais’ sense of personal security.

Seventy percent of African ivory heads for China, causing a population drop of African elephants from 5 million to several hundred thousand in 70 years. Like shark fins, the ivory is cut off the wild elephant and the animal is left mutilated.

Payments to the poacher easily supersede his annual income from other work, and many African governments are happy with Chinese investment, developmental aid and business deals.

In return, they will not support the Western position against the blood-ivory trade which implicates both Africa and China. More than for personal consumption, many Chinese need ivory products as gifts to grease political and business deals.

As an Asian, I am ashamed by the fact that many endangered animals are killed due to greed and false beliefs. The killings not only threaten the existence of the animal but also the Earth’s future — the very balance of Heaven and Earth revered in Asian spirituality.

The extinction of whales, sharks, bluefin tunas and African elephants — and its multiplying effects on climate and other species — are not horror stories devised by Western racists. Many Asians are trying hard to make it into reality in the name of honor, wealth and tradition.

The writer teaches English and Australian cultural studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung.