I don't believe technology is necessarily a prerequisite for being "intelligent." I'm thinking more along the lines of behaviors being the best sign. Of course, unless some creature evolves a gigantic radio beacon for some reason, it's fairly sure we're not going to be making contact with intelligent extraterrestrials without technology any time soon.

A huge number of species kill other species to fill their needs. Don't see why humans have to be ashamed of it. Killer whales routinely pick baby whales out of a group and kill them, when they could go after other, non-cetacean prey. Don't know how much guilt they have over this.

Lions don't sit there wondering if it's right to kill so many wildebeest. The function of a lion is to kill as much prey as it can, and convert it to more lions, until the lack of prey induces scarcity. No lion has ever sat down and said, "You know, I should really give it a rest today, so we don't run out of wildebeest." Multiply that by millions of species.

However, nowhere do I state that somehow whales are our "rightful prey," to be killed simply because we can, any more than any other animal which is less intelligent than we are.* Humans do have a larger impact than most other animals, due to our numbers and brains, and it's fortunate we do have the ability to say "You know, I should really give it a rest today."

Please understand that I only picked whales as an example because they have a lot of brain power, and have been threatened by unfamiliar predators, yet exhibited no real defensive learning process.
Sure, given enough time they could physically evolve more speed or something to help them escape ships, but physical evolution isn't what intelligence is all about. A hundred years of whaling should have given a truly intelligent species a clue to work with.

I'm happy that we have advanced in our technology so that whales no longer are a major resource. Most reasonable people would agree that whales are marvelous creatures, and killing them is a hell of a waste just to keep lamps lit.

*Except domestic turkeys, which are too stupid to live.