Shark Soup and Whaleburgers: Endangeriffic!

The people at Walt Disney, Co. must be wishing that they’d never heard of Cantonese food. Their announcement that shark’s fin soup – a traditional, mostly tasteless delicacy – would be on the menu at Hong Kong Disneyland pissed off animal-rights and environmental workers all over the world. (Except for China, that is, where the words ‘迪斯尼’ – “Disney” – and ‘鱼翅汤’ – “shark’s fin soup” – turn up only Chinese-language reports from non-mainland sources in a search of Google News.)

Disney spokespeople have defended the soup’s position on the menu by saying that it’s, you know, a cultural thing, an argument that cut no ice with US conservationist Paul Watson, who said: “They say it’s cultural. Does that mean Disneyland in Japan is now going to be having whale burgers?”

Dude, don’t give them ideas!

This morning, the Guangdong Jinyang website features a story with the headline “Ignoring censure by the tnternational community, Japan brazenly sells whale-burgers.” According to the article – which names as its source the British Defence Times (?) – only a few hours after the International Whaling Committee “condemned Japan’s use of ‘culture’ as a pretext for large-scale whaling,” a chain of meat-patty stores on Hokkaido began selling whale-meat patties. The owner of the chain says that, in surveys, his customers say that whale meat is one of their favorite things to eat between buns.