Save the whale, let them hunt climate change activists instead.

Perhaps the real problem is the sharp drop in intelligence involved
when random authors offer up an uninformed opinion to readers and
declare their ignorance to be a balanced or knowledgeable argument in
favor of whaling.

First of all, whales and dolphins are not pigs or cows or chickens or
even foxes. It would be nice if editorial writers and other
commentators could occasionally address this subject without injecting
lesser straw man arguments. There are plenty of activists who focus on
animal cruelty in agriculture and sport hunting — Google it.

Second, it’s shocking to witness a Faroese Grindadrap in progress
because of the event’s obviously brutal nature — a whole town of jerks
rushes into a crowd of corralled pilot whales and physically hacks all
of the animals to death. The amount of violence and blood is visibly
excessive.

The Grindadrap has absolutely nothing to do with food security or
economic prosperity in the Faroe Islands. Not one person will starve or
go bankrupt if these opportunistic slaughter festivals were permanently
halted. In fact, the main export of the Faroe Islands is food (fish).
The people who participate in this slaughter do it purely because they
enjoy killing those animals with their own hands. They get personal
pleasure out of it.

However, distribution and consumption of pilot whale meat poses a
public health risk due to contamination from marine pollution. Faroese
doctors have repeatedly advised that people refrain from eating the meat
or blubber of these animals due to long term studies on the
consequences of human exposure to mercury, PCBs and other toxins that
accumulate in pilot whales.

Furthermore, all claims that the animals are killed instantly are
false. The pilot whales are harassed at sea, chased in to the shallows,
and then hooks are driven either into the animal’s flesh or into their
airways. The animals are dragged by ropes attached to these hooks until
beached and then one of two killing tools is used to finish the task. A
knife is driven into the one side of the animal’s head and cutting
continues until the other side is reached — passing through the spine
and arteries in the process. Or, alternatively a tool that looks like a
small spear with a T-shaped handle is driven repeatedly into the back of
the animal’s head and claimed to pierce the spine or brain or artery
that feeds the brain. Only after all of this effort does the whale
finally succumb to death among the other members of its family group.
The Grindadrap is not a humane practice — though over the years, as a
result of observers with cameras, some efforts have been made to make
the event seem less cruel — such as only killing the whales on beaches
rather than watching them bashed repeatedly against rocks.

Finally, calls for protecting whales and dolphins are not limited to
emotional attachment. For the large whale species, industrial
over-exploitation nearly wiped them all out leaving many endangered
today. Smaller cetaceans mostly perish as bycatch in commercial
fisheries and also face threats from pollution, habitat degradation,
climate change, overfishing of prey species, disease, and more. There
are no guarantees that the large populations of pilot whales estimated
to live throughout the North Atlantic today will survive in the same
numbers, or at all, tomorrow. Conservationists are concerned about all
marine species — including top predators like sharks and cetaceans —
for good reasons.

Sorry, I’m
Faroese …

Upset Danes ask me about whaling. I am a disgrace to their nation because I
kill whales … it does not look nice to house these barbarians under the
common throne. Everything should look pretty to the world, so it is unfortunate
that the Faroese people cannot stay away from the whales or at least build a few
slaughterhouses along the beaches where it all could be hidden away and nobody
saw the blood The whale meat could then come out in small, fine packages, like
Danish pork and chicken – directly into the freezer. It would look so pretty.

Whaling is frequently “today’s theme.” One is appalled at having to
listen to opinions from people outside before they properly try to get some
knowledge Faroese whaling. They brainwash the outside world into thinking that
we kill an endangered species, and thus we get a bad reputation.

It is a repetition of Brigitte Bardot and the image of the baby seal! In a
desperate attempt to get into the media spotlight again after the beauty was
faded and did not sell itself, she put up as the seals’ savior and helped to
destroy an indigenous people’s means of livelihood. Without thinking that
indigenous people for thousands of years build up their nutritional needs,
according to what their exact nature brings them of food. What do Brigitte
Bardot and other media celebrities such as wealthy pop musicians know about indigenous
people’s foods? They make “some”
environmental case their touchstone to win world sympathy, so the focus is
removed from superficiality. Several of them have no idea what they “Support”
and do more harm than good.

If an indigenous people’s usual diet is suddenly replaced by foreign food,
foreign substances, they become sick. Bananas and cabbage is certainly healthy
– when it is sprayed with poison – but it has never grown or been harvested in
neither Greenland nor the Faroe Islands. People eat oranges and lettuce in
France. If it was taken from them and they were forced to eat raw Seal liver
instead, THEY would be ill because their system is not tuned to that kind of
nutrition. It is that simple.

People talk about whale hunting – the hunt for whales. This is not about
hunting. It is called whaling. The Faroese are not out on the big ocean to hunt whale
herds to dry land. Some large whales seek even closer to land on their own.
Well-meaning environmentalists in the United States have tried to drive
stranded whales out to sea again. They have kept them alive when by irrigating
them with water off the beach and tried to drag them out with chains and giant
cranes. Nationwide media coverage! When it fails, and the whales have to be
killed, people’s feelings get out of control, and it overshadows everything
else, such as stories about natural disasters, violence and murder against
people, of abused children, the insane religious fanatics’ misdeeds. Emotions
run free in the holy name of double morality. The whales have had a reason to
look towards the shore – even in the Vejle fjord in Denmark in 2010! The poor
whale was not let to die in peace.

The Faroese are sovereignly the best in the world to handle pilot whale catch.
They have centuries of experience. The catch is so controlled that each whale
is counted and registered since the 16th century. There are no
hunters in the world, in whatever form of hunting that can provide such
registration.

Paul Watson
is a liar when he tells the outside world that the whales suffer a cruel and
painful death and that we are bloodthirsty barbarians. It is simply impossible
to catch whales with a fishing rod and put them up on a cutting board and
manage them a’la French Steak. It is clear that the ocean colors red with blood
– they’re large animals. Watson’s concern for the whales, which according to
him jerk of pain, is unfounded. The rooster also runs around headless, and
sheep are kicking on after slaughter. The larger animals’ reflexes seem more
violent, self-explanatory.

We grew up with pilot whaling, just as we as children watched as the sheep were
slaughtered and the birds had their neck broken. You cannot be soft minded when
you grow up in a harsh nature. In Denmark and other countries the kids hardly
know where the red hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken thighs are coming from. It
all comes from dead animals – hopefully not self-dead – added a bit of
everything and a splash of color that makes it all look pretty. What kind of life
have these animals lived before they were slaughtered and prepared for the
freezer in the super-market? Not as good a life as our birds, fish, sheep and
whales.

Should we
fail to slaughter animals, because they look cute, or because they have intelligence? The pig is
said to be one of the world’s most intelligent animals. Which creature cries
more than a stressed pig – and how much suffering does a breeding sow not get
from its bedsores, when it can no longer rise from its couch, sometimes not
even move – but despite all this it better breed! Why do people eat venison
without lamenting the adorable doe eyes – or a tiny lamb? Or cute little
chickens that are not stunted or crippled by the growth hormones in the chicken
cage in their miserable, fortunately for them, short life. And trucks with
young calves are transported live, crammed together under the pure stress
torture all the way from Denmark to Holland to satisfy consumers’ on airs. And
horse transports as well, where you don’t find it necessary to give these poor
animals a sip of water – they are going to die soon anyway and time is money,
so why spend time on nonsense humanism underway. Talk about cruelty to
the limit! Then you have to put up with letters
from Danes and tourists in Holland recently asking about what kind of a strange
country, they are in Realm with where you kill whales. Yes, imagine those poor
tourists are ashamed of the Faroese whaling – “it’s primitive and has no
place in the year 2010 and it’s not food, it is about, they can just buy what
they need”.

Paul Watson’s intentions are not well-meant. It
is a media show. One of his ships was purchased in Norway through an intermediary,
and Norwegians resented deeply, when they learned what it was intended for.
Such activists incite “easy targets” which appeal to feelings rather
than to reason and enlightenment. On the Internet, the public is able to
vote for and against whaling. The “easy
victims” – tick “should be forbidden.” This percentage
states out from some pictures of a lot of blood, that the Faroese should now
live without whale meat. There are hardly any of those people who know that a
few decades ago the Faroe Islands was number two worldwide with the most
nutrient-rich diet. Yes, that is namely diet and
nutrition we are talking about here. Strangers want to manage our diets.

One wonders what we want with whale meat in
2010, when “civilization” has brought us pizzas, pork chops and red
sausages. The supermarkets’ freezers are bursting with “civilized
food” of indeterminate origin, and pumped full of we-don’t-know-what, and
neatly wrapped in plastic so it does not pollute. How
“fine” is it to eat Foie Gras with silver cutlery and pointy little
fingers when you consider the genesis of the diet just eaten? I wish you would
get it turned in your throat just like the poor animals do it! To prohibit the
Faroese to eat whale meat would a few decades ago be similar to taking the rice
from the Chinese, the fruit from the southern population and the vegetables
from the Danes. As late as the 1960s we got our regular flight connection with
the world. We who prefer the original food rather than the junk that has since
flooded the islands, are thus in some cases still alive! But the incidences of
serious diseases have accelerated in the Faroe Islands for the last decades,
mostly due to foreign and improper nutrition.

No, the Faroese are not barbarians. Our animals live freely and without
stress. The Danes and other nationalities are by
contrast barbarians when it comes to treatment of animals. The treatment that
you expose your animals to – exclusively for commercial purposes – is barbaric
cruelty. It is tragic to see how these animals live before slaughter, where it
is just quantity and not quality that counts. We do not kill whales for fun and
never for commercial purposes.

Flocks that come along our fjords have always been regarded as God’s gift to
our people, as a welcome and necessary complement to the food, as the mountains
and the sea incidentally gave. The whale blubber (polyunsaturated fat) was the
Faroese children’s most important vitamin source for generations. We got the
number of slices bacon, similar to our age, 5 years = 5 slices on a piece of
rye bread. The tradition of distributing profits from whaling for free to every
household in the village is the most unique social system that exists. In my
childhood the whale men went around in the village and made sure how many there
were in the household, and if guests were in the house that day, they were
counted for as well.

Paul Watson or other foreigners should not have any opinion about whether or
not we can do without whale meat as a source of nutrition. He must instead
worry about the ocean pollution that has destroyed the quality of both whale
meat and everything else living in the sea. He – and everyone else – does not
need worry so much anymore. Whales are soon so filled with mercury and debris
from your civilized industry that you will soon automatically get your will,
when the meat is no longer suitable for human consumption. By then someone will
have to find a method for destruction of stranded whales. It is pollution and
other man-made disasters that destroy various animal populations and prevent
the chain from functioning normally. We are aware that we therefore have to get
used to new food sources imported from outside.

The Faroe Islands don’t need any allowance for their grindadráp. Nobody has the right to decide upon the use of their pilote whales as natural ressources but the Faroe Islands themselves. The grindadráp is legal, sustainable and according to animal protection regulations.
These former whale killing nations, – UK, USA, Australia, Germany…, who started their new cult of whales and dolphins as the Western Holy Cows only when their industrial over-exploitation ceased to be of
any economic interest, are not in the position and have no moral right at
all to give bad or good marks to those people, who play the game.

Yes, the Faroese grindadráp has a long history, it is the only still existing form of this ancient collective and social marine drive. This treasure should well be honoured as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

And to be honest, – should I really take the opinion of an author seriously, who respects “the bravery” of these false Animal Right SSCS eco-fascists and who applauds this vile propaganda concoction Blackfish?

I find it difficult to refrain from commenting on many of the claims made within this article, including the blind acceptance of figures relating to population estimates of pilot whales around the Faroe Islands (as if an abundance of pilot whales makes it any more ethical or acceptable to slaughter them), but will limit my comments to the interesting allowance and exemption that the author provides to the Faroese tradition of exploiting pilot whales, in contrast to the list of other marine species that he notes are facing exploitation elsewhere.

The author seeks our understanding that there are more serious matters at hand, including the decimation of sharks, manta rays, and tuna across the globe, suggesting that the similar decimation of pilot whale families is somehow less important and less meaningful to marine ecosystems. Beyond the sheer cruelty involved with these hunts, their impact upon the broader marine ecosystem is unclear and population-level impacts also unknown.

It is interesting that all of the examples cited by the author are examples of human exploitation, just as the grinds are, and yet the grinds get a free pass in comparison. I have to ask why? Is the author’s exemption of these hunts, as opposed to the hunts of tuna or sharks, based in numbers alone and with the suggestion that the pilot whale hunts are sustainable? Or is it the assertion of a belief that any tradition is entitled, no matter how cruel, to preempt the rights of others who may be impacted or affected by these activities? Whales belong to no one, and to no one country, and are not the tribes and societies of the world that wish to see these beings alive and free from pain and harm also legitimate traditions that should be recognized?

No traditions or cultural practices should be exempted from scrutiny, and in situations where they are no longer necessary for subsistence purposes and where they seriously and demonstrably compromise human health, animal welfare and wildlife conservation, such traditional activities should cease.

All the Faroese can come up with all the excuses and defenses in the world about this tradition – bottom line, you all look like trashy, girly savages – no real men on that island. Real men look at you and laugh because you’re a bunch of cowardly men getting your kicks off of hurting something docile that doesn’t stand a chance against you. You wouldn’t last in the real world so stay on your little sheltered island of fools and continue to live in the 1600’s while us real men continue to laugh at your girly actions. You’re all a joke.

‘Little’ lasting harm? The slaughter of any animals like this causes harm. They’re part of a delicate ecosystem that humans are already destroying well enough without practices such as this.
It’s a very concerning barbaric practice, especially to be involving young children in.

1. Pilot whales are not endangered, are not held in captivity and are killed as humanely as possible.

2. Pilot whales are in no way more deserving of life than other mammals and.human-whale speciesism is still speciesism: if you argue that it is morally wrong to kill animals for food, then this must be equally true of all animals, otherwise this argument is no better than arguing that it is morally right to kill animals for food because humans are superior to animals.

3. Emotions are a poor substitute for reason.

You are so right, Tim. Thanks for your lucide comment. I’d like to add that 2 trillions of fishes every year are slaughtered and in most cases they undergo an even more atrocious death – we just don’t see it as most fishes to not let much blood when killed…

we should LET them? but it’s none of our business.. it doesn’t affect any of our lives, and none of us would have known about it if it wasn’t plastered in our papers and on websites, why now of all times? when we have enough to worry about.. such as our own country’s problems, lets work on fixing those first and stay out of other country’s business hmm?

In today’s age of continued scientific advancement and understanding of how our actions affect the Eco system, there are no cultures that are not being asked to give up things rooted in the past. If we are going to survive as a species we must be willing to change and adapt. Societies that do not change, die. This is what history tells us. Either we listen and we stop the wanton destruction of the planet we live on, or ?? That’s right, we’ve got no where else to go. So we had better figure this out quickly.

It does harm the whales.

I have rarely read such simple-minded nonsense; furthermore, the japanese population is ashamed of what goes on in Taiji while the Faroe islanders and the Danes seem to be proud of their tradition and the slaughter seems like a big party; with beer & kids enjoying the slaughter. Yes the Faore islanders and the Danes who defend them are a disgrace to humanity; so is the japanese government, but the japanese people don’t take their kids to have fun slaughtering the mammals; once morer, it feels like this is a white christian colonial ethnocentric viewpoint and it makes me sick. And the comments below are disgraceful. Shame on everybody.

I completely disagree, let us try to change the habit of perhaps 1,200 years because it is outdated and barbaric. To use the excuse that other things happen elsewhere is besides the point. Let us fight wrongs everywhere we see them and put them right. There is no reason for the islanders to continue with this practice.
Invest in permaculture and small scale organic farming and there will never be any shortage of food.

This barbaric ‘tradition’ belongs in the past – you can try to romanticize it all you like – by not opposing it you are as guilty as the people carrying it out. Shame on you… https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/s403x403/1620667_224854237720102_1827443929_n.jpg

Ref. to http://jn.fo/springaraflokkur+a+kollafirdi.html

The Faroese text translated:
At about 1 p.m. today a small flock of common dolphins came into t he fjord of Kollafjørður. The dolphins seemed to be about to beach themselves when they were helped out again by the locals.

Maybe we should also allow the Japanese to bind little girls feet again . . . on the basis that’s it’s “their culture”?

Remind me again why they stopped doing that . . . oh, yes, now I remember . . . they stopped doing it because it was cruel and unnecessary; a bit like (well; a lot like) killing whales, because that’s what we used to always do.

Still ! . . . I’m sure “culture” beats “cruelty” every time.

So your argument is their slaughter of an endangered species is justified because there are other places that commit the same crime but on a much larger scale. In the same way it’s okay to exonerate a murderer because when we compare a single killing to the series of victims of someone like Harold shipman or Jeffrey dahmer hey you know it’s not that bad??? The practice is inherently cruel on any scale and the fact that they only kill 0.1% of the population each year doesn’t justify it.

How about changing sides…?
Would the Hunters cum food revelers of FAROE feel the same way if they themselves are in place of the PILOT WHALES…

If the FAROE Hunters are being hunted as Pilot whales & NOT HUNTING…

Come on Live & Let live… how could the food of someone be a Joy at the cost of Cruelty towards other….Lets respect each other & live Humanly….at least to start with if not stop Hunting fully …please reduce it by more than half….even if half no of whales live instead of being killed now…we would have achieved something…

Please stop partially …if not fully…RESPECT OTHERS LIFE TOO

Patriots: It is time to go on the offensive against the illusions and superstitions of today’s liberals and progressives: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094KY878

Basically the Faroese are a bunch of backward cunts

This is incredibly barbaric and cruel. I cannot fathom the need to do this kind of thing. Wherever the Faroe Island’s are, it should be sunk, with all hands aboard.

Although the natural pecking order of a free country may appear callous, if we are to advance, then some must lead and the rest will follow.

There is no evidence that that the killing is “instantaneous” as he has put it in the article, in fact there is no known way of killing these large animals in humane way because its not possible otherwise you would see this used by veterinary practitioners and marine biologists around the globe on the dolphins and whales that have beached themselves and can not be otherwise saved. So that is one argument sorted…fish is running out due to over fishing all over the world however clubbing baby seals and killing of so called “pests” i.e dolphins and whales is used t keep this in check no us humans simply eating or fishing less! there are many things that are tradition in every country that if were still around today would cause a massive outcry of human and animal rights and quite rightly have been abolished to the argument of something being a tradition does not stick, its just like me following English tradition by grabbing anyone I disliked dragging them by the hair to the court house and declaring them as a witch and then them being promptly burned alive at the stake, it simply does not happen people and animals evolve. Also why kill something that is not really needed for food?? if you have plenty in abundance (and most farosee don’t even eat it) then why kill them by the hundreds why not stop at 3 or 4 then share that around?…to the below comment of hiding it away won’t stop people being absolute outraged by it they tried it Japan with tarpaulin etc people still know its happening and does not make the killing any better because you don’t have to watch it although I am trying to see what you are getting at with that although you will be surprised at how many people are now interested to know how their meat is raised and killed everywhere around the world now and this is highlighting a lot around the world, people are not just picking on poor old faroses you know in fact, we are looking at the world as a whole and we have every right, as does everyone in protecting the land and sea we ALL depend and rely on! so we are not just some jumped up foreigners jumping on a band wagon and decided to pick on a tiny island for the hell of it, maybe if you left your islands once in a while and opened your eyes to the real world then you would see that what you are indeed doing is murdering something that is as intelligent as you, yet you don’t go around murdering humans do you? just because they look different and don’t use vocal cords or have hands and feet to kick around does not make them inconsequential beings, they are in fact a major part in our oceans bio diversity and going around killing a few every now and then is not ok and not right as we need them to breed a healthy populations and not be interbred and eventually become extinct all because you wanted to fulfill the age old tradition of your long long lost ancestors, it doesn’t matter how many forms and records you keep etc its about protecting the world we live in but you are all to blinkered to see it… so I say thank you very much for helping to fuck up the world I say that for my grandchildren should they be around to see it. oh and I don’t support Sea Shepherd or any other organisation however I do support them in raising the awareness of this to the rest of the world oh and before you make claims about something you know so much about maybe take a look at the offical Faroese whaling page haha http://www.whaling.fo/Default.aspx?ID=7084

As well, Obama’s criminal regime is still attempting to hold the US economy hostage: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/us/politics/administration-to-delay-pipeline-decision-past-12-election.html

what is wrong with those people? why they still keep this barbarian tradition?! there were so many tradition all across the world but humans should give up on wild ones like this…. please stop your savage traditions.

The rest of the world finds this to be very barbaric. Whales and dolphins are very intelligent, social and self aware. We find this very primitive and makes your country look very un evolved. Maybe it’s time to join the rest of the world, it’s 2014, stop this ridiculous “tradition”.

Your article highlights other issues, which is commendable. I just don’t think your viewpoint is representative of most people’s.

I would’t trust anything NAMMCO says. They’re the ones that write manuals how to kill pilot whales! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/340/496/637/tell-nammco-to-stop-telling-people-how-to-kill-whales-with-harpoon-guns/

The number of pilot whales in the ocean doesn’t make their deaths any more ethical; so it’s not really about sustainability. You could say that it’s a “sustainably cruel” practice. That’s not such a great thing though, is it?

I don’t think humans should have the luxury of citing mere ‘tradition’ as an excuse to continue to conduct barbaric acts. It’s too easy. Much harder would be to actually change.

As I learn of the horrific way in which they kill animals in slaughterhouses in my own country, I am forcing myself to give up red meat. I can’t remember the last time I bought it (the last time I cooked red meat for myself was in 1992). And as I have learned more and more about over-fishing, I don’t eat anywhere near as much fish. I just can’t do it any more…