Faroe Islands brutally slaughters 1,428 dolphins for "tradition"

[Sheepinator]

This was apparently the largest ever slaughter of dolphins. I won't post the pics.

Boats could be seen further out to sea in the fjord forming a barrier to stop the live animals, Atlantic white-sided dolphins, from swimming away.

The hunt is called Grindadrap and involves the animals having their necks cut with knives or being killed with harpoons.

"The hunt these days is far from the traditional subsistence hunt of previous centuries," Rob Read, COO of Sea Shepherds, tells Euronews Green.

"The grindadráp now takes place with high-powered boats and Jet Skis, and is little more than a sport masquerading as tradition.

Meat is intended to feed local families, however, in the case of the present slaughter, it is likely that there will be too much to feed the 53,000 island inhabitants - meaning a large portion could be wasted.

Could be wasted? Yeah, obviously, and the meat may have mercury in it anyway so it's not fit for consumption. They slaughtered everything, including calves and pregnant dolphins. They documented the average killing lasting 12 minutes, some as long as 30 minutes.

Dolphin slaughter in Faroe Islands sparks fury after record numbers killed

The tradition is called Grindadrap and involves the animals having their necks cut with knives or being killed with harpoons.

news.sky.com

Tradition or torture? 1,428 dolphins slaughtered in Faroe Islands hunt

Only 17% of people in the Faroe Islands consume whale or dolphin meat - so why are thousands of animals still dying?

www.euronews.com

 

[Deleted member 70788]

Gross.

 

[Uncle at Nintendo]

Time for some sanctions imo

 

[St. Elmo's Fire]

;(

 

[HandsomeCharles]

This is abhorrent, but remember that "not-as-cute" animals are slaughtered in their millions daily as well.

If you are able to, please consider adopting a plant based diet and avoid using animal produce to help eliminate animal suffering.

 

[Unicorn]

This is abhorrent, but remember that "not-as-cute" animals are slaughtered in their millions daily as well.

If you are able to, please consider adopting a plant based diet and avoid using animal produce to help eliminate animal suffering.

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Me eating veggie burgers isn't going to stop this. Sanctions or restrictions on specific "traditions" will.

 

[D.Dragoon]

This amount is not for consumption so you can gtfo with that tradition.

 

[KimiNewt]

This is abhorrent, but remember that "not-as-cute" animals are slaughtered in their millions daily as well.

If you are able to, please consider adopting a plant based diet and avoid using animal produce to help eliminate animal suffering.

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I think there is a big difference between slaughtering domesticated animals raised for that reason and killing a wild animal for no reason.

You're not only killing them but you're destroying part of that whole species and hurting the biodiversity and possibly the ecosystem

 

[meowdi gras]

Disgusting

 

[Sounds]

Humans are disgusting creatures

 

[GYODX]

Some traditions aren't worth respecting.

 

[VeryHighlander]

Tradition? Sounds like a perfectly valid excuse.

 

[Doggg]

Strange tradition.

 

[John Dunbar]

This is abhorrent, but remember that "not-as-cute" animals are slaughtered in their millions daily as well.

If you are able to, please consider adopting a plant based diet and avoid using animal produce to help eliminate animal suffering.

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shhh, obvious ethical implications are not allowed.

 

[Mukrab]

Wow

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Disgusting.

 

[abellwillring]

I would expect they could come to some level of agreement that there would be a cap on the number killed based on the demand for meat. It is one thing to retain their cultural traditions if the meat is going to be of benefit to the people, but the article mentions with a number this large there will be some going to waste. Conceptually it feels a little hard to justify it as being entirely traditional as well given the change in boating -- the article mentions they use jet skis and the like. I would have thought the documentary about Japan some years back may have lead to places stopping this sort of thing but I guess not.

 

[VanWinkle]

Unbelievable. Can't understand how anyone could kill an animal as intelligent as a dolphin. Very inhumane.

 

[Zok310]

Tradition? Wtf is wrong with people.

 

[jelly]

What in the actual fuck. Absolute fucking scum.

 

[Marvie]

This is disgusting

 

[jelly]

This is abhorrent, but remember that "not-as-cute" animals are slaughtered in their millions daily as well.

If you are able to, please consider adopting a plant based diet and avoid using animal produce to help eliminate animal suffering.

Click to shrink...

Well, perhaps true, solely viewed as human consumption but very much different to farm animals for purpose compared to wild animals and the ecosystem. Both are cruel but this is pretty abhorrent and pointless honestly. It's sickeningly cruel. Hypocrisy I know.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Unbelievable. Can't understand how anyone could kill an animal as intelligent as a dolphin. Very inhumane.

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I could easily see it if you live on a small island in the middle of the ocean, however based on this article it appears a large portion of the populace does not consume dolphin meat anymore so this needs to be scaled back significantly.

 

[entremet]

Man, that sucks.

 

[jelly]

How often does this happen? Yearly?, I really don't want to see pictures clicking on the article.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

That's a nightmare of a scene

 

[Shinrou]

Fuck this shit.

 

[GTAce]

Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people, fucking horrible.

 

[Glasgow Mega-Snake]

Well, perhaps true, solely viewed as human consumption but very much different to farm animals for purpose compared to wild animals and the ecosystem. Both are cruel but this is pretty abhorrent and pointless honestly. It's sickeningly cruel. Hypocrisy I know.

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Honestly I'd say, killing wild animals, that had a good life in nature, is a lot better than subjecting animals to the nightmare that is industrial livestock farming, where they don't have even a semblance of a life that suits their natural instincts and are only kept alive by constant antibiotics

The scale of this is extreme of course, but if the meat is all used as food and the species is not endangered, I don't see the difference to fishing and hunting other species

 

[Frankie Williamson]

They also used to go to town on pilot whales until doctors were like sure, keep eating pilot whales if you like mercury.

 

[Apathy]

What the fuck. It's 2021, stop this barbaric shit

 

[coldcrush]

people are awful

 

[Gaia Lanzer]

Tradition for the sake of tradition is stupid. It's the reason so much horrible ideals have lasted longer than the people that thought them out. Traditions that promote love, friendship, understanding, peace and harmony are traditions fine by me. Traditions that promote death, destruction, hatred, segregation, demonization and such, they could all die as far as I'm concerned. Let the old ways remain in the old days, dig their grave and bury them!

 

[Magister Xehanort]

I read this comment on another site:

Being born Faroese but having grown up elsewhere, I'd like to first off mention that I don't support the whale slaughter, but there are a lot of false information going around here so I'm going to share a few relevant facts about this:

First off this is happening in the Faroe Islands. A small island archipelago in the middle of the North Atlantic with an estimated population of 51.000

The Faroe Islands are barren and brutal, and for a thousand years the people of the isles lived off of fish, mutton, potatoes and yes, whale.

Up until as late as the 60s beef/pork and generally groceries from out of country were uncommon and somewhat inaccesible so people stuck with what was free and accesible, mainly ocean food. The country was generally poor for a long time.

The culling of pilot whales is a tradition as much as it is done for food, but in recent years and with newer generations it has become a lot rarer for cullings to occur, and the amount of whale killed is a fraction of what it used to be.

The entirety of the whale is used for food except the entrails. The blubber is salted, whilst the meat is most often dried and served with blubber, but can also be cooked like steak. It used to be a common meal 2-3 days a week, but in recent years whale serves more as a delicacy than a meal in most parts, served at birthdays or other similar dinners.

During a culling all participants are granted a share of meat/blubber. Bigger participation, bigger share. The one who spots the flock is granted a whole whale, but almost always concedes it to be shared. Once all participant shares are granted, the local "whale foreman" will share surplus meat with the town of the beach and further. It happens more often than not these days that a flock is spotted but a hunt is not called out.

The killing of pilot whales and the amounts killed per year records back hundreds of years and is one of the most detailed conservatory efforts combined with details of estimated population numbers.

Pilot whales number in the hundreds of thousands and as little as 0.1% are killed by the Faroese, a number insignificant to the maintenance of a healthy population.

The whales are not "brutally" killed. They're herded into beaches where only licensed whalers with experience and training are allowed to use the kill spear, which severs the cranial artery and the whales are killed instantaneously.

There is no ritual. No festival. No rite of passage. The killing of pilot whales is continued out of thankfulness for the free food the ocean provides the people that have survived off of it for a thousand years.

Now the EU has in fact deemed whales to be "non-human persons" because they're clearly shown to have tight family bonds and are intelligent, but to the Faroese the whale is what pork, veal, beef, chicken etc. is to everyone else.

Tldr: it's not a rite of passage, tradition or festival. It's free food for a people that have eaten what the ocean provides for a thousand years. The whales experience no more pain or stress than the beef and pork in your local supermarket does

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[Strike]

Fuck tradition.

 

[B.O.O.M.]

Pisses me the fuck off

 

[Ocean Bones]

What a bunch of dumb ass pieces of shit. This planet is totally fucked.

 

[Razmos]

The amount of shit that goes on because of "tradition"

Fuck that shit.

 

[Spaceroast]

Yeah I'm gonna say fuck your tradition. This is not okay.

 

[Dyle]

Imagine killing a dolphin instead of playing catch with it or racing with it

 

[Dice]

Traditions can suck my butthole

No tradition should require a senseless death regardless of belief.

 

[pewpewtora]

Gross. People need to realize that some traditions are not worth keeping. Fuck your tradition.

 

[sensui-tomo]

Dumb as fuck tradition that should be stopped.
Side fact dolphins are evil assholes in the amimal world but nothing and I mean nothing deserves this treatment.

 

[N_Cryo]

Remember that dolphin meat contains high level of mercury and is not safe for human consumption.

 

[TrueSloth]

What the fuck. It's 2021, stop this barbaric shit

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Yes, call out a foreign community as "Barbaric" but don't think about the millions of dolphins and whales that capitalism has killed.

 

[Irishmantis]

Dumb as fuck tradition that should be stopped.
Side fact dolphins are evil assholes in the amimal world but nothing and I mean nothing deserves this treatment.

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Well they actually say Dolphins have personalities as diverse as humans

so yeah evil assholes is true then

Yes, call out a foreign community as "Barbaric" but don't think about the millions of dolphins and whales that capitalism has killed.

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How about fuck this barabaric shit and fuck capitalism?

poster didn't insult the whole country
He just said this is barbaric

Both things can be wrong, just because they call this barbaric doesn't mean they support capitalism

 

[BringBackSonics]

I read this comment on another site:

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that was a good read, I still disagree but I can understand their perspective.

 

[Ocean Bones]

Yes, call out a foreign community as "Barbaric" but don't think about the millions of dolphins and whales that capitalism has killed.

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What in the world did that comment have to do with capitalism and how are they ignoring it? Faroe Islands are a territory of Denmark

 

[Deleted member 55524]

The worst part of this is how smart dolphins are. They felt fear, torment, panic, suffering. And for what?

Not that it's excusable to slaughter any animal based on intelligence, it just makes this instance especially heinous. There is no justification for making a living being suffer like this.

 

[waterpuppy]

While I do think that the Grindadrap should be at the very least heavily regulated and eventually limited/stopped, the way some of you are calling it barbaric is a little aggressive imo. Like, the original reasons for the whaling was because of the lack of natural resources and food on the islands, which then gave birth to this tradition. Doesn't make what it is today any better, but this wasn't a tradition born from a bunch of vikings going "Fuck yeah I want to kill dolphins!".

It's still pretty upsetting. And them being so isolated makes breaking these kind of traditions difficult. With the very graphic images paired with every story about this, it doesn't exactly make the international community more willing to understand the culture either. From what I've gathered, most Faroese people don't really seem to care much about what foreigners think, anyway.