Dolphin Slaughter

michaliszissiou

No comments.

TIG

The movie is 'factually messed up'.

The Faroe Islands is a small country [of about 48,600 people] - located in the North Atlantic about half way between Iceland and the Shetland Islands to the north of Scotland. As a self-governing nation under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Government of the Faroes administers, independently of Denmark, all areas of self-government under Faroese legislation, including the conservation and management of fish and whale stocks within the 200-mile fisheries zone. The Faroe Islands have chosen not to be a part of the EU, but maintain bilateral trade agreements and bilateral fisheries agreements with the EU and other countries. A Faroe Islander does not consider himself to be 'Danish', any more than does someone from Greenland [or to give it its proper name 'Kalaallit Nunaat'], who are also in a similar arrangement with Denmark.

Read these three pages for their side of the story...
http://www.whaling.fo/Admin/Public/DWSDownload.aspx?File=%2fFiles%2fFiler%2fwhaling%2fIN+BRIEF+JAN+2012.pdf
or this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_the_Faroe_Islands

The animals being killed are 'whales', not 'dolphins'.
[Although annually up to ~10 dolphins can get caught up in the hunt - then they are dispatched 'by shotgun', and their unplanned killing must be reported to the authorities]
They are being hunted, then slaughtered for food, by people who are closely tied to the sea and particularly to fishing [an industry which is also in difficulties].
There are records of these 'drive hunts' in the Islands dating from 1584. It is regulated by Faroese authorities [but not by the International Whaling Commission as there are disagreements about the their legal authority to regulate small 'cetacean hunts']. These long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) are killed annually, mainly during the summer months. The hunts, called "grindadráp" in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level, with many locals participating. The hunters surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. Then they drive the whales slowly into a bay or into the shallows of a fjord. When a whale is in shallow water a hook is placed in its blowhole so that it may be dragged ashore. Once on land, or otherwise immobilized in knee-deep water, a cut is made with a pole-axe across the top of its head near the blowhole, which partially severs its head and kills it. The dead animals are then dragged further onto the shore and then 'butchered' for 'meat and blubber' which is shared out locally. An annual average of ~800 pilot whales [or up to ~1000, sources differ] are taken from an estimated 'local population' of ~128,000, so it is hardly 'unsustainable' fishing.
Many Faroese consider these hunts to be an important part of their culture and history. Animal-rights groups criticize it as being cruel and unnecessary. The hunters counter-claim that most journalists do not have sufficient knowledge of the methods employed, or its economic significance to the Islanders.

It is open air slaughter on a large scale, that many non-islanders find distressing... But that's because it's not hidden away in some nondescript shed at an abattoir. However, if we were to film a commercial slaughterhouse [there's probably one not so many miles from your house!] - showing cattle/sheep/pigs/turkeys etc nervously queuing up to be stunned, their throats slit, eviscerated and probably skinned, all whilst barely dead - then I'm sure that its goriness would look as bad as, if not worse than, the "grindadráp"; after all we have specially bred these animals, often in relatively unpleasant 'captivity', with the sole purpose of then killing them to eat their flesh. At least these pilot whales have lived free in the ocean until they were hunted and caught; like most other sea 'fishes', that are taken for food [OK, I know they are mammals!]. The fact that a creature is more like us, than say a tuna-fish of a similar size, is not a logical position to take - for example, a pig is very comparable to us in size and appearance, and is at least as intelligent as a young human child - but in their millions worldwide after usually having been treated relatively badly, they are summarily dispatched, chopped up and eaten by us, irrespective of their sentience!

All 'Meat is Murder' - but some is just more socially acceptable...

Having 'rebalanced the books'... may I now say that I do find this whole practice most unpleasant, unnecessarily cruel and excessive on may fronts; but then... I still prefer to eat my daily protein as anonymous 'discreetly killed' steaks, chops, bacon, sausages, pies, tuna, fish-fingers etc rather than as 'whale-blubber' I might have personally had a hand in hunting, catching and dispatching...

michaliszissiou

Thank you for replying TIG.
Agreed.

dale

So well spoken (written) Tig.
Many don't understand that we have become so disengaged from our food source, that in purchasing those plastic wrapped choice chicken breasts, you are essentially the one who chopped off the head.