Some of the many readers' letters The Japan Times received in response to the Sept. 11 Hotline to Nagatacho column, "Stop the annual Taiji dolphin massacre, make your children proud" by Deb Bowen-Saunders:

My response to Deb Bowen-Saunders will mirror my Jan. 12 (Readers in Council) letter, "The moral case against whaling?" Once again, a person opposed to the killing of "intelligent mammals" has asserted that what happens to a dolphin is morally equivalent to what happens to a human.

Once again, I ask: On what basis? On what principle do you determine that certain intelligent mammals, such as dolphins, have a right to life, but other intelligent mammals, like pigs, do not. If your principle is "intelligence," then is it OK to only kill the unintelligent dolphins?