Should we bother to save pandas?

I guess that was some sarcasm... What the heck would we need fairylike creature in this discussion for, anyway?

Also, as for the "they bring happiness" problem, honest, I think they are the heck boring to watch — they don't do a thing most of the time, and if they do, it's what you have already seen in TV and postcards.

Y'all are just setting us up for being exterminated by the Panda-Aliens of the future.

While it certainly was a lighthearted comment, I think there's something important there. There's this cultural idea that we have dominion over the animals. That the choice is between being a cruel master or a kind one. That protecting endangered species is somehow in the same realm as animal rights in terms of being humane to our charges.

But why do we have dominion over them? Why are we reducing their agency to that of children? We're also animals fighting for our survival here.

edited 11th May '11 6:37:02 PM by Clarste

Dolphins? Who gives a fuck?

12 year old girls who need something on a poster but are too old for unicorns.

The people who want to eat the dolphins and not have their tasty meats disappear too fast.

I kinda like pandas...it would be great if they didn't go extinct...but there are more important animals to save, the distribution of resources may not be ideal.

Because they're fucking dolphins, man.

You don't fuck dolphins, Zersk. They fuck you. Whether you want it or not. With their prehensile dolphin penis.

They're working on dolphin translation.

Hell if the pandas ain't making an effort to save themselves, I say we shouldn't.

They wanna self-destruct, I say let the emo bastard bears do so.

Aondeug: For the last time, Elephants are the ones with prehensile penises. Dolphins have pressurized sperm.

But seriously, dolphins are badasses.

Dolphins and humans are kindred spirits.

They're both delicious? I don't know, humans are fairly parasite riddled.

This is getting off-topic. Let us get back to pandas, extinction, and environmentalism before thread lockdown occurs.

Yes but no one cares about truth or things like specifics Zersk. All we care about is rumors and things like this "However, the urogential slit is very muscular, and a male dolphin can manipulate his penis from the base, allowing him to use it to pick up objects and the like" meaning the same thing as prehensile.

edited 11th May '11 9:08:58 PM by Aondeug

Pandas are cutesy and Pandaing To The Audience is a definite benefit to them

If China let the species go extinct, I would neither blame them, nor be upset.

I'm pretty sure I heard the term dolphin genocide; what a crock of shit; they're food, just like everything else.

Save the pandas because they're cute.

Kino: Well, it's technically a genocide, I don't see what's wrong with using this term.

edited 12th May '11 5:20:46 AM by Quoth

Last I checked, dolphins aren't part of a ethnic, racial, religious, or national group; they're animals, and we eat them. End of story.

As for pandas, they're fun to look at, but fuck em; we've got better things to spend our money on.

Pandas actually have a political usage; they're used by the PRC government to expand their power sometimes. Panda diplomacy and all. And these zoos pay the PRC government to loan the pandas. I say let them die.

I've actually always wanted to try dolphin, because whale meat is very tasty and I assume dolphin would be too.

edited 12th May '11 7:52:06 AM by Tsukubus

ew hell no

are they even useful for anything aside from their vomit and flowers (which I think could have the stuff it doesn't want eaten by other insects, but I don't remember which.)

Letting them die and killing them is different, and the poor person thing doesn't matter when the poor person doesn't even care enough to get someone else to perserve his house for him after he's dead.

Bees pollinate a wide variety of food crops and other plants.

So...yeah, unless you like hand pollination, they are useful.

They're the only way flowers can have sex with each other. Unless you'd like to try to do that...