<< for one thing, whales are extremely intelligent, social animals. Cows are not. >>
Huh? Whales are as dumb as mammals come, spare of a mole or something. What is your basis for describing whales as "extremely intelligent", because that's what some Green Peace dork said on the Discovery Channel? lol!! I love the animal nuts, "Dolphins are extremely intelligent because they use pops, clicks, and whistles to communicate." HTF does that make them 'extremely intelligent', how else would they communicate - they evolved and live in the f-cking ocean!
Cows are not social? Why do cows live in herds...for the cumulative body warmth? Are you saying cows have no social structure?
I'm sure there were a lot of guilt-ridden beef and veal dinners served for a few weeks after American movie-goers oggled and ahhed over that cute little calf Billy Crystal befriended in the movie 'City Slickers'. Nobody was going as far as to say that cows 'extremely intelligent' because they thought it was cute.
So you saw 'Free Willie' and you think whales are cute, does that mean you get to arbitrarily take away a traditional food source for an entire culture of people? Should Hindus get to decide what Americans eat?