I never new that Gorilla's etc are protected because of their intellegence, I just assumed that it was because they are very rare because human-beans keep on killing them for hands, feet, heads and fur because they are sick bastards.It's got nothing to do with whether the creature is ugly or not; it is very clear that these creatures are intelligent and possibly even self-aware; we have laws against killing gorillas and other "higher" animals, I don't see why dolphins should not be included in this.
Fish that are caught in nets (the vast majority, not including Tuna) essentially drown/suffocate (I find it difficult to diffrentiate with fish they essentially die because they cant process oxygen) and they are often crushed against nets and other fish, and the ones that die end up on the deck of a ship still alive they then drown/suffocate until they are dead.PS. millions of fish that are "tortured to death"? WTF are you talking about?
Thus I would conclude that they are tortured, lets face it its not painless or fast unlike hanging a chicken upside down (unconciousness usually follows shortly and painlesly, they then either have thir throats cut or are electrocuted. Pigs usually have a steel bolt shot through the side of their brain, cows and sheep no-idea.
Whichever way you look at the sea vs land animal animal death, the land animals win every time when it comes to a humane death.
I am not trying to suggest that fish are more intelegent than cows or dolphins for that matter, merely to point out that fish die in a painful and often slow way and no-one cares because they are fish and they are stupid, but they DO feel pain).
Imagine the outrage of a herd of cows being pushed together in a group by buldozers and then pushed all at once into a deep pool and being pushed under the water until they are dead. This is very similar to the Dolphin video, which I agree is quite disgusting, but that is basically what happens to fish in nets - yet no-one cares because they are not cows or Dolphins.
Andy