The Faroe Islands were the site of a mass dolphin slaughter that claimed the lives of 1,400 dolphins. Even Hunting’s Advocates Had a Fit.
Graphic photos of the animals’ deaths enraged animal rights advocates, and some residents complained that the murders put at risk the livelihood of whale hunters who uphold a centuries-old tradition and provide food for the community.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has released a photo of dead white-sided dolphins on the Faroe Islands’ island of Eysturoy on Sunday.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has released a photo of dead white-sided dolphins on the Faroe Islands’ island of Eysturoy on Sunday.
Grindadrap, the Faroese term for whale and dolphin hunting, is a centuries-old tradition and a staple of the islanders’ diet. Many Faroese also cite government restrictions, such as those governing the slaughter of animals, as a justification to maintain the practice.
But when 1,400 white-sided dolphins were killed there last weekend — the highest ever recorded capture in the area — and when the local news media released horrific photos and videos showing the beached dolphins being pulled up in bleeding seas, even advocates of the hunts were outraged, even.
As a result of the slaughter’s gruesome magnitude, animal rights activists and others who believe dolphins should not be killed are now at odds over whether or not the practice is still sustainable near Skalabotnur, the islands’ longest fjord.
According to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s CEO Alex Cornelissen, “it’s awful to witness an attack on nature of this size in the Faroe Islands considering the circumstances we are in, with a worldwide pandemic and the world coming to a standstill,” he said in a statement.