On the Whale Massacre at Faroe Island

I am not really sure this is Sanctuary material, but I might as well put it here.

A friend of mine sent a forwarded message about a gruesome traditional activity that happens in the Faroe Islands in Denmark. It involves killing a lot of whales. Naturally eliciting a lot of protest - and therefore a lot of forwarded emails.

So, I checked with Google just to make sure this is not just some propaganda thing that wasn't based on anything.

I looked for videos and found one at Youtube. I did not even finish it (because it really was very bloody).

But with further reading, and consulting the ever reliable truthorfiction.com - it turns out the people in the Faroe Islands have some rationale on the activity - not as a rite of passage tradition as mentioned in the forwarded email - but as a communal activity to store food for the winter.

But the activity really is not for the squeamish - as a BBC correspondent/witness had put it.

Here's a link to the objective take on the issue: A Whale of a Killing in Denmark -Truth! & Fiction!

And here's an excerpt from the BBC article that gives another perspective: Faroes' controversial whale hunt

"What, I wondered, did they think of the attempts by animal rights activists to ban whale hunting outright?"

They had no doubts. With 800,000 pilot whales in the North Atlantic and with rarely more than 2,000 a year taken in the Faroes, the whale population was not under threat.

Had I, they asked pointedly, ever gone to an abattoir in my country and seen the industrial daily slaughter of thousands of farm animals?

Ironically, rights activists and Faroese do agree on one thing.

The recent discovery of high levels of mercury, insecticides and other toxins in pilot whales means that whale meat consumption may have to be reduced. Pregnant mothers on the islands have been counselled not to eat it.

Surely, my friends pointed out, rather than attempting to block a traditional and sustainable harvest, environmentalists would better focus their energies on preventing the slow poisoning of the seas, which in the long run pose a far greater threat to the whales, and to us all.
[End of Quote]

Anyway, not that I think there is no issue, I would not personally be involved in such an activity myself - I guess I just need to take a second look. This is also related to concerns for polar bear hunting in the Arctic. Extreme conservationists would call the practice evil, but on the other hand, they forget that it is a major source of food for many of the indigenous peoples in the Arctic.

And I guess in the web of life - humans are the ultimate predators - and we are just doing our job.


--- Excerpt of the forwarded message:
>
> DENMARK: WHAT A SHAME!!!
>
> This happens in Denmark

>
> DENMARK: WHAT A SHAME, A SAD SHAME.
> THESE PICTURES HAVE TO BE SEEN AROUND THE WORLD. THERE IS NO WORSE BEAST THAN MAN!
>
> This brutality happens every year, Dantesque, bloody slaughter in the Faroe Islands, which belongs to Denmark .
> A country supposedly 'civilized' and a EUROPEAN UNION country. For many people this cruel practice is unknown, how insensitivity.
> This bloody slaughter is just to attend Moz to 'show' entering adulthood! It's absolutely incredible that nobody dares to do something to prevent this
> barbarism that is committed against Calderon, an intelligent dolphin who has the peculiarity of approaching people out of sheer curiosity.