Pilot Whales Brutally Slaughtered Annually in the Faroe Islands
September 8, 2008 · Print This Article
Residents of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous province of Denmark, slaughter and eat pilot whales every year, as these photos graphically depict. The Faroese are descendents of Vikings, and pilot whales have been a central part of their diet for more than 1,000 years. They crowd these intelligent animals into a bay and kill them, cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord. In the process, their main arteries get cut. As you can see, the waters in the bay turn bright red from all the blood.
Ironically, this practice, called grindadráp, is diminishing the population of 5,000 islanders. Many of them get sick and die from high mercury levels in the whales. Mentally retarded children are reportedly being born at alarmingly high rates.
To be clear, the whales are not endangered and animal rights organizations have largely backed off due to the fact that this process is such an integral part of Faroese culture, and because the Faroese aren’t involved in commercial whaling. That doesn’t make the pictures any easier to look at, though.
PBS has a video about the mercury problem and this culture’s deeply held beliefs called ‘The Faroe Islands – Message from the Sea’, viewable here.
Link [PBS] + [Wikipedia]
- Stop Whale Massacre in Faroe Islands!
- LEGAL Whale & Dolphin Slaughter In The E.U?
- Faroe Island Dolphin Drive Hunt..STOP NOW!
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[...] head over to Earth First’s blog and check it out. The pictures are hard to look at but a good example of how some tradition needs to be chucked [...]
Tasty!
Fck, ‘m gng t b thr nxt ssn. Wldn’t mss t fr th wrld. Fck ff. h h, thrchjrk.cm
Horrible – but what can be done? If the Faroese are not involved in commercial whaling, if the animals are not endangered, it seems nothing can be done until mercury consumption and inbreeding drive this culture to its demise.
i wonder if they traditionally killed this many at a time?
I know that it is tradition, but it is kind of irresponsible to stick to a tradition that is killing the population.
From an animal rights standpoint it is kind of hard to judge though…they are consuming the animals, the whales are not endangered, it looks brutal because of all the blood, but that is what happens in a beef slaughterhouse too…we just don’t see it.
Robert
http://www.greenfixes.blogspot.com
Anyone know if they grill these things or just eat them raw? My past taste of whale wasn’t a very pleasant experience. Just saying….
This is an island who is under homegoverment… since 1948… So as a Dane myself, please leave us out of this one… Apparently the havent evovled like the rest of us…
People of Denmark have never been proud of theses savages in the north atlantic… And I personally hate it when I see stuff like this…
Calling this tradition is as stupid as calling tradition to hunt for witches, hitting schoolkids in a classroom or forbidding women to walk alone in the streets.
Some traditions are better left back in the dark ages. This is really brutal.
Traditions… Respect!!!.
I wish these people die. I wish they get throats sliced … THEN they wil know how it feels.
I wish someone would throw them in the ocean and then we could harpoon them and then herd them into shore and cut their spinal cords and then roast them slowly over a fire and pour mint source over their tender flesh at dinner. mmmmmmmmmmmm kentucky fried human.
It’s disheartening to see how brutal humans can be -especially to animals, noting that we were given dominion over them – to care for them, not to slaughter them. A practice that’s been done for years doesnt mean it’s right and should be continued.
Came across this petition site to stop this barbaric act..
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/end-whale-dolphin-slaughter-in-the-faroe-islands?page=87
Who cares about the outcome of my actions, as long it me feel and even more important look good.
People without the smallest clue about the cultures, traditions or people being hurt by their actions, are drawn by the image boost a membership of a banning organisation could give them. It is so easy and some even get a mental erection by picking or beating on minorities.
Hitler did it, Stalin did it, they did it in former Yugoslavia and they are currently doing it in Rwanda, China and many other places around the world.
95% of you are blind followers; it makes you feel strong to be part of the banning team. It is easy not having to understand or investigate, just jump on the wagon and start pointing fingers, banning and destroying, without the furthest idea about the damage you are causing.
In the seventies and up through the 80’s the same kind of people were banning the killing of seals, not only the industrialists, but any hunting of seals.
You destroyed a tribe of people who for thousands of years, had been living in accordance with nature. The Inuit’s in Greenland couldn’t any more sell the skin from the adult seals. They were, through this action forced to seek in to the cities, and are now, exactly like the American native Indians, being destroyed by alcohol and drugs.
Congratulation to you all you from back then, you successfully partly destroyed a population, an incredible value was los. But did you save the seals? No – today we know, that the Inuit’s had become a part of the ecosystem and there is not one more seal today in Greenland than there were back then. The CO2 the people in your network produces, are killing more seals and polar bears, than the Inuit’s ever did.
Now the Faroese are on line for the killing of pilot whales. But have any of you, just the smallest clue about how many pilot whales there are in our oceans.
700.000 to 800.000 thousands, and alone in the North Atlantic more than 100.000.
They have been hunted for decades and the few hundreds hunted and eaten by the Faroese are not making any difference to this population.
But why do they do it, you might ask? Or you might even think that it is cruel.
Well it does look awful – I agree to that, but no different from what it would look like, if we slaughtered a goat, a sheep, cow or a pig in the water.
The Faroese has besides the few sheep no meat production. They have no pigs, veal or beef; standing locked behind bars their whole life, being fed up with hormones, made ready for the knife of people who couldn’t care less. But I don’t see you raising awareness, trying to help these more than 100.000.000 animals living a sad life.
The Faroese people live in accordance with nature, more than any other civilised population in the world.
These people are 99,9% dependant on what the ocean brings to them, and still today the whale meat is a important part of many of these peoples nutrition, but equally as important part of their culture.
Something that is hard to understand living the Jet-Set, spending most you time building your image. Hard to understand if you have never lost a family member to the sea, when he was earning to pay school and food for the winter, hard to understand not having to work to put food on your children’s plate, but only work your way to the next Gucci bag.
So shame on you for judging…
Judge your self first – 95% of you are meat eaters!
Judge your self when you are wearing a leather bag or leather jacket, it is made of Veal skin, from one of those poor little calf’s, living tied to a bar.
The killing of whales is done only by trained people, people who know what they are doing, which stands in strong contrast to you.
Once judgement and banning, gets a part of building once image, it turns to the ugliest side of man kind.
Why don’t you spend your energy on Nepal, the rainforest or the capitalist’s destruction of the ocean or natural resources? Stop picking on a few people, living like they have done, long before the words fashion, trend and image were used the first time.
So before ever again raising you voice banning others, stop polluting, stop using, and stop wasting. Take responsibility for your own actions, before asking others to change.
Thank you for reading…
Regards
A Faroese guy
Are these people nuts? It’s totally not acceptable by using excuses of traditions…If my traditions allow to get lot of children, can i rape every lady on the street just to get baby? This stupid practice should be abolished and those people should be shot to death..
Please wake up and use the brain before doing it…
“Tradition” in some parts of South Asia consists of burying alive women who refuse arranged marriages. Of course the whole village comes to the scene and enjoy the show… Would Aki the “faroese guy” take it as an alternative, when mercury level in pilot whales gets too high ? After all it is also a genuine tradition.
Die hard tradition of bullfighting in Spain and other latin countries at least gives a slight chance to the bull and the bullfighter somehow risks his life… Why the faroese people don’t go and try to cut the whales to pieces in the deep sea instead? That would be a lot more exciting!!!
It seems , that according to the news of the area that many mentally retarded babies are being born in that area due to the mercury and the whale meat , so it would not be illogical to conclude that the residents of this area do have some sort of mental instability as a result of this heinous inhumane activity.
Come on folks , what ever happened to the famous “do unto others”?
Disgusting.
The people eat the whale they slaughter so its not just senseless murder. But regardless, i think there should be a more honourable way to put these beautiful and intelligent creatures to the sword. Maybe they could change the way the slaughtering is carried out. Being a descendant of vikings doesn’t mean one should act like one.
Maybe they could drop a giant hair dryer in the water and shock the whales to death.
No one should be allowed to kill for the tradition! And call himself human!!!
They should be ashamed and baned to walk the rest of the earth!
But since there is a high mercury level, will you still consume the meat? If not, the whales just die for nothing!! Killing is not a tradition to be preserve.
“Maybe they could drop a giant hair dryer in the water and shock the whales to death.”
Haha
It looks bad, but if doesn’t effwect their numbers, if they’re not endagered, what’s the big deal. Do those of you who are against this eat meat? Chicken? Eggs? Cheese? Drink Milk? All of this comes from animals that are caged, slaughtered etc. Those of you who are stating that these people should be shot, have their throats cut etc should take a hard look at yourself in the mirror, unless you are vegan you have no right to criticise and are adding to the hypocracy that surrounds this subject.
If you can’t kill it, don’t eat it!
It’s shame for humanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We live in 21st century but are actually as PRIMITIVE as thousands of years ago. The saddest thing is we all will look at this e-mail but nothing will actually change. Or maybe I’m wrong and there is anything we ALL reading this article could do about this slaughtery?
It is true that it looks terrible. And it is true that when you see blood then everyone goes whaaa whaaa about killings. And its also true what the Faroese guy said. So all in all I believe people must maybe start to look at the bigger picture here. I’m also not keen on killings of any kind but would spend my energy more on solving other problems than carry on about how terrible people are
If you think this is inhuman you have to see how traditional killings are done in South Africa. And we can’t do anything about it because it’s part of their culture. And most times (when they have to do a sangoma ritual) the animal suffers so much it dies from shock and they don’t even eat the animal. They only drink their blood. THAT my friends are brutal and there are little children watching and growing up with the idea that it is normal.
Oh why don’t we make killing human babies a tradition? The worlds overpopulating and I’m sure if we make it a tradition it will be okay!
If whales weren’t dissappearing so fast I really wouldn’t mind this as much but the fact that they are going onto the brink of extinction and the fact that there are waaaaaaaaaaay toooo many humans out there it just sort of sickens me. I’m sorry if it offends your “tradition” but you could find a new one or just talk about the days of ol’ like most folk do. We have other sources of food now we don’t need to eat whales anymore. You could make hunting rabbits a tradition there’s plenty of them and they can reproduce much faster than a whale!
Cows really wouldn’t be around inless we did eat them anyway. Do I agree with methods of raising and killing them? Hell no. This is why I drink only organic milk.
There’s a balance in this world, humans are tipping the scales. This shall lead us to our demise. The world is only what you see through your own World View. It’s too bad many of us can’t open our minds to other cultures, figuring out a way to live with eachother. I still stand on no killing the whales though.
I suppose if I could I would rather live in a world were if you had to eat meat you could only hunt something that could kill you back. This would give my prey a fair advantage. This would even the odds.
Telling the Faroese to stop whaling and eating whale is akin to telling Americans to stop farming and eating cattle.
Don’t be so pig headed as to think your morals or culture are the correct ones.
If you don’t want to eat whales, don’t eat whales. If you don’t want to kill whales, don’t kill whales.
How dare you suggest anyone alter their ways to make yourself feel better, sitting in your little tent yapping to your hippie den mother…
Go smoke some more reefer and come up with even MORE awesome ways to force your ways upon those who don’t agree with you.
Wow, it blows my mind that by the replies to this post there are so many self righteous critics out there.
While most of them seem to hang onto the “barbaric tradition” aspect and abuse that angle, very few really address that the dolphins are not really killed for fun: they are killed for sustenance.
Furthermore it’s clearly understood that it is not done for commercial purposes but for livelihood.
I applaud the people that have the insight to do the comparison of slaughtering livestock for food.
And correctly stated: unless you are a vegan your comments against the killing of the dolphins does not have much ground to stand on.
Not justifying the practice but not condemning it either.
It’s just too easy to be sitting somewhere comfortably typing away while so detached from that reality of the Faroe Islands.
As mentioned before: have a good look at yourself in the mirror…
just your pure existence on this planet is harming somebody somewhere.
Now, go and get a Big Mac and digest this reality :-0
I think that this is absolutely horrible! WHOEVER THINKS THIS IS OK YOU ARE SICK MINDED!
that is sad and crul and people should be killed fore doing that
some people are realy sick, they think they’re right! im not seen killing/slaughtered those whales are heartless as they consumed for their daily life.. the pilot whales are not endangered species. they just killing hundreds not thousand when the’re hundred of thousands more outthere!!!! would u stop eating hamburgers???!!
at first, looking at the images bothered me deeply, they still do. i thought the entire act was barbaric and cruel, but after reading some comments and understanding where the meat that i buy comes from, it seemed hypocritical and to a small degree foolish to think that the faroese people are any less cruel and inhuman than myself. if anything they are more attached to who we really are as a species than the majority of people in the world. i buy my meat packaged and ready to cook, and rarely do I get my hands dirty. the faroese, geographically speaking, are isolated and most of what they consume comes from local sources.
I am not much of a traditionalist, and don’t believe that this should continue if it is mainly to honour their ancient viking culture. however, if the pilot whale meat is a main source of their nutrition, not endangered, and all the meat is used, i do not see the sense in supporting a ban on this practice. the methods they use do seem very torturous, but corralling herds of animals to kill is a primitive method that has been done for thousands of years.
the real tragedy is that the whale meat that they consume is contaminated with mercury and they are being affected by it. whether the faroese people are responsible for that, i am not sure, but i highly doubt it. it is most likely the result of a global irresponsibility toward our environment.
those of you that are vegan, i commend you on believing in something and disciplining your lives accordingly. for myself i will continue to buy food and meat from local farms that employ honest and ethical business standards.
Ithink that this animal shoud be left alone…
This is horible..horror! I can belive that people can really do things like this! Murders and killers that’s what they are.. I wish u all burn in hell..god damn u should be all lock down in prison to rot like the whales u kill and leave on the bay. And who says that this animals are not protected??? U are all stupid people, they are protected and endangered! I’m just happy that I don’t live there.. How can u be so cruel? That’s really fucked up tradition! Hell it’s not even a tradition it’s shit!
KILLERS!!!!!!
This article was sent to me by a friend. I love animals and for me they are on the same level as humans. Especialy if you look at the reality that we are also only an animal.
These pictures look bad and they are shocking, but alot of people have commented on the situation with out looking at the big picture.
The people from the Faroese Island are not just following a tradition, they are surviving. They need food and as most people know humans need animal protien to survive and be healthy.
There are other animals that need the help that will disapear if we dont do somthing. If you think this is bad, I have never seen anyone up in arms about a cat that managed to kill to the point of extinction of an entire bird race…..This was one cat that lived in a light house on a tiny island off the shores of australia…
“Ironically, this practice, called grindadráp, is diminishing the population of 5,000 islanders. Many of them get sick and die from high mercury levels in the whales. Mentally retarded children are reportedly being born at alarmingly high rates.”
My God, please do some research before you publish this ridiculous article! There has not been one single case of that nature. You guys should rather discuss how we have made rules and actions against killing pilot whales in barbaric ways. And maybe throw in a few words about how we help people around the world through food programmes and funding.
Anyway, those of you who are writing comments about how the Faroese population should be thrown in the sea and hunted afterwards, well, I’m pretty sure you guys support that every day in all the wars that your own countries are participating!
Kiss my xxx, and mind your own fuxxxxx business!
Why aren’t people appalled by the slaughter of pigs? They are very intelligent animals and live most of their lives in a crowded pen. Their tails are cropped off before they are trucked to the slaughter house because they are penned in so tight they bite off each others tails. At least the pilot whales have had the luxury of living a life free to swim and nurse their young in a clean habitat. They die a quick death and don’t have half as much trauma as a pig or cow going into the slaughter house! I am not a vegan but I do only buy free range beef,
pork, chicken etc. I always ask when I attempt to buy at a restaurant or fast food if any meals are from animals that are free range! It is expensive and right now I don’t have the extra money to afford free range so I do without. So I guess I’m a sometime vegan. Please request free range when you shop for meat. You may have to go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s etc. You won’t get it at McD’s or Boston Mkt. etc. but you will at Chipotle’s.
I CAN UNDERSTND MEAT EATING IS INEVITABLY ( BY STANDARDS OF TODAY) A NORM, BUT KILLING IS AGAINST MOST PEOPLE’S GOOD CONSCIOUS.
EVERYTHING THAT LIVES HAS FEELINGS, OTHERWISE THEY WOULDN’T THRIVE TO SURVIVE. IF BY BEING THE STRONGER SURVIVER GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO TAKE THE WEAK’S LIFE, YOU ARE GIVING THAT GUY TWICE YOUR SIZE THE RIGHT TO SLAUGHTER YOU FOR WHATEVER REASONS HE HAS.
I JUST WISH THAT EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER KILLED TO CONTEMPLATE THE FEELINGS OF THAT SLAUGHTERED. THE FEAR AND PAIN IT/HE ENDURES BEFORE DEATH.
IS THERE A WAY TO LIMIT KILLING? IF NOT, AT LEAST DO IT IN A MORE HUMANE FASHION TO LESSON THE PAIN AND SUFFERING? (since traditions is merely for nostalgia and serves no practical purpose, and it hardly weighs against matters of life and death)
PS. I like the idea of dropping a huge hair dryer into the water. At least whale no. 73 doesn’t have to witness 72 deaths before it’s his turn, or to swim in his family’s blood before someone saws his head off. Imagine the saw got stuck between the vertebraes…
you people that believe this is tradition are retarded. what did the whales do to you to deserve this i think anyone and everyone that has ever done this or is ok with this should have there back sliced and sharpend objects ran through there spinal coard skrew tradition i hope everyone ok with this and the people doing it get eatin and feel the pain before they die like the whales do
There sure are quite a few supposedly civilized humans leaving comments. To suggest or condone the killing of humans, slicing their throats and all manner of murder….. you’re the gruesome ones…. because they killed a whale?
Where’s your concern for millions of cows smacked in the head with a hammer, the chickens with their heads sliced off, pigs disembowled alive? Should the whole food production industry be slaughtered because they provide hamburgers and bacon for your fat arses? Yeah right! Double standards.
You guys are nothing but uneducated sheep who read propaganda, believe, weep, rage on a blog and….. do nothing anyway. what a bunch of pansys.
i hope they all die of mercury poisoning!!!!
This is CRUEL! The killing of these Pilot whales is cruel!
It should be stopped
I’ve been extremely glum since I saw those terrifying pictures. I’m wondering if no animal-related groups ( like Sea Shepherd ) launch any campaign to protest against those barbaric Faroese’s atrocity ? Don’t use ” tradition ” as an excuse , otherwise , the cannibal practice shouldn’t have been forbidden cuz that used to be a ” tradition ” in some uncivilized tribes. This is the 21th century , a century of highly spiritual realization and awareness . Any form of distress or terror that humans afflict on the other species should be abandoned .
Please sign the petiton to ask the Faroese to outlaw such massacre.
http://gopetition.com/petitions/denmark-end-whale-dolphin-salughter.html
I support the Faroe Islanders’ right to slaughter whales humanely and sustainably, for sustenance.
… as opposed to the right of urban-dwelling carnivores to sprout nonsense on blogs after feeding themselves with meat that was farmed unsustainably, cruelly and for profit.
Hi, I’m faroese. How are you all doing? We love you too.
i think US should invade Faroe Islands to bring the civilization to the island !
What did the pilot whales do to them huh? How evil and cruel. Noobs like them are so rude and cruel!
That is so sad. =[
I can understand why they do this. It is a tradition. I can understand the slauter of these creatures! We all eat! We all eat differant things! But when you kill more or take more than you need! Then there is a problem! But in the end the Faroe islanders are the ones who pay with the high mercuy content in the meat! Illness, retardation of the young, and death is a high price to pay for harritage! I am not saying STOP! I am saying even traditions can be altered. Changed for the way of time. A 1000 years ago or so when it was started I am sure the meat was more healthier. Not filled with as much of this deadly toxin! Is tradition worth the life of your unborn? Is the price of tradition worth your life? Some may say yes! After all who are we to judge when some have killed in the name of faith! Yes there should be a change for their health and the creatures they kill! But if we are willing to kill HUMANS over land, politics, and relgion? Are we just as horriable as those who slauter inicent animals who do nothing to us? I can except killing creatures to eat and live. But more than your fill is just wrong!!!
This is Aweful and I cant believe this sort of stuff can still be happening
If they have to eat, that’s fine, but at least kill the whales in a quick manner, as painless as possible.
The data about the number of whales caught per year is available since 1700s when this hunt was regulated, and has always been around 1200 individuals per year. In the last 20 years it has been reduced to around 900. That represents around 0.1% of the world population of long-finned pilot whales…
Overall not much different of what happens in slaughterhouses around the world.
I am much more worried about Japans succesfull campaign to dismiss the ban on whale hunting overall….
Burning witches at the stake USED to be a tradition in a time when we knew no better. As the World evolves we can’t allow such acts to be put down to a cultural necessity. This is wrong, to make an animal suffer this way is wrong, purely and simply. You can’t defend an act of such brutality as being something required by your culture. If you can’t get it up or need to prove yourself to women……buy viagra.
ASSASSINS!
To the people of the Faroe Islands…I say, "STOPTHIS SENSELESS MASSACRE!!!" Anyone who could bury a hook into the backof a whale, drag it to shore, slit its throat, and butcher it, deservesto die of mercury poisoning…or worse.
Whale & Dolphin massacre in Europe
http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/whale-dolphin-massacre-europe
:’(
Why don´t these disqualified beings don´t use these weapons for killing themselves?
…
the human beiing is disgusting!