Dolphin Slaughter in the Feroe Islands

Stop Press!

I've just encountered the sick 'right of passage' that is practise in the Feroe Islands that lie between Scotland and Denmark.

The Feroe Island are an autonomous, self-ruling set of islands that ceded from Denmark in 1948 where every year the bays turn red with blood.  However, the only war here is man's war on those that cannot defend themselves.

Every year hundred of the highly intelligent Calderon dolphins are slaughtered by the young teenagers of the islands in a stomach churning 'right of passage' to prove that they are 'adult' and 'mature'.

The playful creatures are lured in because they will interact with humans, such is their intelligence.  However, instead of receiving the friendship they are expecting, they are beaten to death with thick hooks that look like a cross between anchors and butcher hooks until they drown, screaming, in their own blood.

It seems that ordinary whaling with explosive harpoons was not brutal enough for these people, they had to take it to a whole new level with whole pods of dolphins being butchered in this vile festival, where just about every one on the islands turns out, as either participants or spectators.

I'm sorry but even if the meat is being eaten afterwards, I cannot condone this disgusting practise.  It is the duty of a hunter to make sure their prey dies as swiftly as possibly, the respect of what you'd wish for if the positions were reversed and you were the one dying.  Beating a creature to death is not swift, dutiful or honourable.  It is sadistic and doing as a 'right of passage' is just enshrining within a culture that which should be condemned in society.

I'd say that Denmark should take a long look at the quality of the people it's allowed to rule themselves as they are now casting a very bad light on their parent country.

Failing that Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd should start campaigning in this area.

To the youth of Feroe I say this - it takes bravery to stand in the way of a terrified creature that has no defence but to swim as fast as it can; it takes even more to stand in the face of your peers and your elders to say 'no, I refuse to do this thing'.