Viewers, I saw this article and it's alarming, so I have to share it-pictures included. Read below:
"Whales are sensitive, social animals with highly developed nervous systems. They have a profound capacity to suffer distress, terror and pain. Each year, the Faroese kill pilot whales and other small cetaceans.
Islanders in motorboats first drive the whales into a bay. The chase may be lengthy. The exhausted, terrified and confused whales are eventually driven into the shallows. Here the bloodbath begins. The islanders repeatedly hammer 2.2 kg metal gaffs into the living flesh of each whale until the hooks hold. A 15 cm knife is then used to slash through the blubber and flesh to the spinal column. Next the main blood vessels are severed. The blood-stained bay is soon filled with horribly mutilated and dying whales.
The Faroese celebrate the butchery of their victims in an carnival atmosphere of entertainment. Indoctrinated from an early age, children are often given a day off school to watch the fun. They run down to the bay and clamber over the carcasses of slaughtered whales.
Every year around 2,000 whales are driven ashore and cruelly slaughtered in the Faroe Islands, mid-way between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. For centuries the Faroe Islanders have hunted pilot whales, driving entire schools into killing bays, where they are speared or gaffed from boats, dragged ashore and butchered with knives. Although the Islands are a protectorate of Denmark, they have their own Government and regulations governing the pilot whale hunt or “grind” as it is known.
Aside from the fact that the number of North Atlantic long-finned pilot whales is unknown and they are listed as 'strictly protected’ by the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, this is an act of barbarism and pointlessness. By slaughtering 100 whales at a time, the Faroese are wiping out entire pods and family groups. They are removing building blocks from the gene pool of the species and damaging the web of life in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.
The drive hunt is a practice abandoned elsewhere many decades ago, and now outlawed by other European states. The inhabitants of the Faroe Islands have no subsistence need for whale meat, and much of the flesh is left to rot and be dumped; it cannot be exported, as it is polluted with heavy metals and other toxins and therefore cannot meet EU heath standards for human food.
According to Faroese legislation it is also permitted to hunt certain species of small cetaceans other than pilot whales. These include: Bottlenose dolphin; Atlantic white-beaked dolphin; Atlantic white-sided dolphin; and Harbour porpoise (There are also specific regulations for the hunting of harbour porpoise. Harbour porpoises are killed with shotguns).
I really don’t know how we can stop this act.I searched and I have found their prime minister’s website that has an email.
Probably we can send all together to his info@tinganes.fo e-mail to stop this slaughter.
I have no more words for this mates. I hope to give an end to this slaughter as fast as possible.
His email address is info@tinganes.fo
The Prime Minister’s website is http://www.tinganes.fo/Default.aspx?AreaID=11"
7 comments:
That is sick.
I could say more, but I think that pretty much covers the essence of it.
okay. first, i am in no way defending this. BUT it's kind of like easter egg hunting for us: it's tradition. whale hunting was a huge part of life in coastal towns for centuries. the main source of fuel came from whales (blubber burned down = oil). although there is a moratorium on the number of whales that can be commercially killed per year (6), some whaling is allowed to continue to happen because of tradition. it's kind of like widows setting themselves on fire in India; it's horrible, but we can't set aside these traditions and forget that they existed. They are a part of the world's history and they should be remembered.
Your socks are on my desk.
Pace, Eliza
unbelievable!
We should kill every year 500 people from Denmark - and named it: "easter egg hunting"
Hello, happened to find your post because somebody sent me an email about the whale slaughter and was researching on it. Before I get to that though, I'd like to respond to Elizas comment. The self emmolation of Indian widows you have referred to is called Sati. This practice was prevalant a long, long time ago but now is against the law and only happens very rarely in rural communities. Infact it is illegal to be even a bystander at such an event.
So the comparison and argument you have made in support of "tradition" is void. In this day and age, continuing this barbaric act of masacaring thousands about these precious creatures is simply atrocious. In most civilized communities traditions which are found to be harmful to the society and the world we live in are abolished and done away with. So should this criminal "tradition".
That is sick - yes that about sums it up. Humans never cease to amaze and horrify me with their actions against nature and each other in the name of country or tradition. Not to mention the endless acts of sheer stupidity.
I will forward my disgust to the Prime Minister.
It's hard to make them stop as they already consider it a tradition but in my opinion, it's just unGodly. Too much in a day..unless Denmark is in famine. Payback time will surely come in the end.
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