It's a complex issue Namsnanny. We are all complicit in cruelty to animals.
Whale and dolphin meat is a substantial part of the diet in some Arctic and Far Eastern cultures and those meats often contain dangerous levels of mercury. Where is the mercury coming from? It's emitted into the atmosphere by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities. That mercury is carried into the oceans, where it is absorbed by marine organisms and, over time, is passed up the food chain to dolphins and whales.
We live in a global economy and demand cheaply made goods from the very factories and processes which emit these toxins. We may not eat the meat or be directly involved in the slaughter but we are nonetheless contributing to poisoning animals with our insatiable need for consumer goods and services.
Extract from the linked article below:
Humans aren't the only sentient mammals affected by mercury; it harms the dolphins too.
Mercury and other toxins "have been linked to increased rates of cancer, increased first calf mortality, immune suppression, and a higher susceptibility to infectious diseases, [and] are postulated to be a primary factor causing population declines," according to Toxic Catch, a 2013 comprehensive study on Taiji dolphin meat conducted by the London-based Environmental Investigative Agency.
"It's a terrible, terrible thing for dolphins," said Luca Giovagnoli, the resident marine mammal veterinarian at the Dolphin Project. "It particularly impairs their neurological function, just as it does for humans."
www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/11/revealing-cove-dolphins-toxic-secrets/