FlyingUnderTheRadar

So Delta decides to celebrate their first flight to China by serving shark fin soup.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/...hina_0401.html

Bad, damn bad, real bad. Sharks are being decimated. Their fins are cut off while they are still alive and thrown back into the ocean to die. Nice way to show Delta cares.

AndyTLe

Shark Fin Soup is considered a delicacy in China. Others can feel the same way about the way chickens are treated fro DL's meals, or the cows used to make the milk on the planes.

SAT Lawyer

I won't ever be mistaken for an animal right's activist and am a voracious carnivore, but shark finning is a despicable practice. In many instances, the shark's fins are sliced off and the shark is tossed back in the ocean to die a miserable death. I agree with the original poster that it was poor form on DL's part to be associated with this practice. Surely another Chinese delicacy could have been offered for consumption instead.

yngdiego

I agree! That is absolutely horrible, and just because one culture thinks it's OK, doesn't make it so. Just look at the decimation of Elephants for their ivory.

Delta should have had more common sense than this! Hope it makes the news so Delta gets shamed.

yngdiego

Chickens and cows don't have their appendages cut off while they are living and tossed back into their environment to die a slow and horrible death. How can you even say such a thing? Not even remotely comparable.

fly co to see the yanks

i agree with the OP. bad, bad delta. but, perhaps the soup was $0.02 per serving cheaper than the alternative they were considering. that's all airline beancounters care about these days, no?

AndyTLe

Funny, I'm a huge carnivore yet I very much respect animals. What I'm defending is a different culture. The Chinese believe that shark fin soup is a health food, an aphrodisiac for men and the secret to a beautiful complexion for women. Just because the practices of one culture isn't accepted by those from a different culture, that doesn't necessarily make it "despicable".

To condemn another culture's food is close minded. As it is generally accepted that the animals in our food supply just show up to the supermarket, we go on with eating our fried chicken, pork chops and cheeseburgers. Yet Hindu's believe cows are sacred, I haven't seen anybody complain about the way cows are slaugtered for food in the US.

GRB051111

+1 ^

SLC777RES

+2

Add Roast Pig to that list

obscure2k

I find this shark fin soup topic very interesting. Several years ago, when in HKG, I became very ill with a strep throat and sinus infection. I consulted the hotel Doc who prescribed shark fin soup as the #1 choice and if that didn't work, to start a regimen of antibiotics. The shark fin soup was like a miracle medicine. This was at a time when no one knew that sharks were endangered. For years, Shark fin soup was my homeopathic medication.

yngdiego

I'm seriously shocked you can't see how despicable cutting the fin off a live animal is, tossing them back into the sea to die is and how it could be acceptable to any human with a conscience. An airline should have more common sense than to condone such treatment, and of endangered (or nearly so) animals no less.

I love meat as much as anyone, but this treatment of sharks is absolutely appalling. I'm quite open minded about food and culture, but not when it comes at the cost of butchering live animals and leaving them to die.

I don't see companies in the US chopping off wings and legs from chickens while they are alive and letting them run around their pens to bleed out and die in horrible pain.

I'm not against humane methods to turn animals into food, but this method for sharks is far from it. Shark fin may well do some good for people, minus the mercury, but at least kill the shark humanely.

AndyTLe

I'm not saying that the way the sharks are killed is right. Again, I'll just state that the "outrage" that everybody feels is because of the publicity that is received for shark fin soup. Since shark fin soup isn't a "normal" part dinner tables, it is easy to find it "despicable" the way the animal is killed without fully understanding the culture and beliefs in shark fin.

As someone that grew up in the same area as PETA's world headquarters, it is hard to miss video, pictures and news regarding the way cows, pigs and chickens are treated here in the US. If you would like to see how those animals are treated for our consumption, you can just go online and easily find the information.

jfulcher

Maybe you should go protest in front of the DL HQ with a sharkfin on your head.

El Boocho

Did DL serve dog on its inaugural flight to ICN? Will it serve Elephant Stew or an energy drink made of ground rhino horn on its upcoming NGO and Jo'berg flights? With few exceptions, that food you get in the supermarket that is neatly packaged and under cellophane is humanely slaughtered. It is killed instantly, not left to die a slow painful death. Sure there are some bad apples out there that may not follow the rules. When they are caught they will pay huge fines and possibly go to jail. This is very different from the accepted and acceptable (to them) Chinese practice of cutting off fins and letting them drown. I would put this practice up there with the force feeding of ducks and geese for the production Foie Gras as ugly and something to be avoided.

For the record, I eat meat, wear leather, have no problem with fur, think PETA and greenpeace are worthless organizations, fish, hunt and am big enough to admit when I am wrong. Andy, are you big enough to do so?

Recreation

If this, indeed is how they slaughter the animal, then both the Chinese and Delta should be ashamed of themselves.

Of course, anyone who eats chicken in the United States should check out the conditions of mass factory farms before they get too smug. I daresay chicken is on the menu at Delta, and I highly doubt they buy organic or Amish poultry.