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CELEBRITIES AND ANIMAL lovers from around the world are flocking to the Faroe Islands in a bid to stop a controversial dolphin hunt that activists describe as an “archaic mass slaughter”.
Actress Pamela Anderson, who arrived on the remote North Atlantic archipelago in recent days, is set to be joined by 500 volunteers who will patrol the ocean and beaches around the islands to try to block the killing of pilot whales.
Renowned ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem and sailor Florence Arthaud, both from France, are also taking part in the campaign led by environmental group Sea Shepherd.
Operation GrindStop aims to save more than 1,000 pilot whales, members of the dolphin family, from being slaughtered in a practice known locally as a “grind”.
The method involves the mammals being forced into a bay by flotillas of small boats before being hacked to death with hooks and knives.
Many locals defend the hunt as a cultural right, but Sea Shepherd has denounced it as “a brutal and archaic mass slaughter”.
Sea Shepherd USA / TwitterOperation GrindStop reports zero pilot whales killed in June and July! Learn more: http://t.co/68j2wA4ZNP
— Sea Shepherd US (@SeaShepherdSSCS) August 2, 2014
Campaigners argue that while there was once a need for Faroe Islanders to hunt the whales for food, that need no longer exists.
“This is not for survival. There are very few things that happen like this that are so brutal,” former Baywatch star Anderson said at a press conference on the islands on Friday, according to the Sea Shepherd website.
“We have to put this behind us and move on, and let the whales swim freely. And I think it’s much more important for us in the future to save our oceans and the biodiversity of our oceans that the whales are very important to.”
’The bloodiest months’
Rosie Kunneke, who is leading the campaign for Sea Shepherd, also called for an end to the practice.
“A culture and tradition that does not belong in the 21st century should be abolished,” the South African said on group’s website.“I grew up in the ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ of apartheid. We fought with the people outside against the government to change this.”
Guillem, 49, widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest ballet dancers, has been a supporter of Sea Shepherd for four years.
“With my reputation, I can help open people’s minds,” she told AFP.
“I think the solution will come from individuals, it is they who make the difference,” she added.
She will arrive in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous country within Denmark, next week.
Sea Shepherd says its campaign will continue throughout what it says are “traditionally bloodiest months of the hunt season” — from June until October.
The group says on its website that its volunteers will use “direct action” to intervene in any hunt “using land, sea and air tactics.”
Since records began, more than 265,000 small cetaceans have been killed in the Faroe Islands, mainly between the months of June and October, according to Sea Shepherd.
It says that 267 pilot whales were killed in one grind last year in the Faroese town of Fuglafjorour.
Whaling in the Faroes stretches back to the earliest Norse settlements more than 1,000 years ago, and community-organised hunts date to at least the 16th century.
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India has passed a law, whereby dolphins etc. are recognised as ‘non-human persons’ , therefore, killing them constitutes murder. These creatures (persons) are equal to us in intelligence, they fight no wars, they’ve done no harm to the environment, – so actually, they are most likely, our superiors, morally anyway.
Perhaps as a compassionate human, it is my cultural and moral right to slaughter some Faroe islanders…
Pity they dont give their citizens the same rights .
Actually bottle nosed dolphins are quite the bullies; common practices include gang rape and infanticide.
I’m in no way condoning our slaughter, but to call us dolphins equally intelligent…??
Written from my underwater iPad, specially modified for use with flippers.
You are wrong, – http://justingregg.com/the-dolphin-rape-myth/
Always check your sources.
Equal to us in intelligence?! I’m going to go out on a limb here and say if 1,000 humans were brutally slaughtered in the exact same place every single year it wouldn’t take us long to cop on and steer clear! Or do they have to return to Faroe consistently because that’s the base for the pilot whale space programme? They’re certainly pretty clever, but to put them on an equal footing with humans in terms of intellect is fairly wide of the mark.
It’s so sad to see the torture of these wonderful creatures , it needs to be stopped . they can hide behind the tradition card all they want but the reality is that it’s pure entertainment for them , nothing more ! Its barbaric !
I assume you’re a vegetarian Joan?
Ray , no I’m not a vegetarian
I’m struggling to see how you’re not a hypocrite then Joan
Ray , it’s the way they kill them that’s not right
Well, if you have a problem with that I’d suggest you look into how chickens, cows etc are reared and killed. It’s much worse as far as I’m concerned.
So you think it it perfectly fine to hack and knife them to death ? That says a lot …
No, I don’t condone it. My point is that its hypocritical to speak out of one side of your mouth about this being terrible while stuffing a battery raised chicken leg in the other side.
Ah now Ray I wouldn’t eat a battery raised chicken !
Shame on them.
Now if the same effort was put into sorting Gaza out!!!!!
Owen, agree wholeheartedly. The Edmund Burke quotation springs to mind.
Not condoning the cruel methods used by the Faroese, but they make a good point when comparing how we slaughter cows, chickens, pigs etc. in order to get food. Pilot whales aren’t endangered by any means and the meat obtained in the ‘grind’ is eaten by the locals in the same way we would have our local meats etc. Obviously the footage of these ‘grinds’ are pretty grim and horrible, but I imagine footage of abbatoirs is pretty horrendous too.
Sea Shepherd are doing a fantastic job worldwide!
These people are very Cruel, and must be stopped!.
This is barbaric and don’t belong in the 21st century and on an other note it’s a pity these yanks don’t look closer to home on how they treat there own animals like how cows chickens and pigs caged up for there lifetime with no freedom and pumped with drugs for the food chain
Thankfully no Grind has occurred since Sea Shepherd have arrived this year, but let’s not forget the taking into captivity and slaughter of dolphins which occurs daily for 6 full months begins in less than 4 weeks in Taiji, Japan, September 1st. Sadly, in Taiji, intervention by compassionate people is not allowed, and any attempt to do so immediately results in the person’s arrest. Watch on YouTube ‘The Cove Full movie’ to see an Oscar winning documentary on this. For those of you that wish to object to the senseless slaughter / captivity that begins in Taiji Sept 1st, there will be a peaceful demonstration outside the Japanese embassy in Dublin on that date. (Look up Ric O Barry Dolphin Project online for info). More importantly never go to a ‘Swim with dolphin experience’ or Seaworld or any other money making business that keeps what were once wild dolphins/Whales in what is nothing more that a bath tub…. It’s an inhumane and cruel business. Only last week SouthWest airlines announced the termination of their promotion of Seaworld on their airplanes’ colour schemes. A positive step in this battle to help abused animals….
Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be human
Great balanced article in the Sunday Times today about this very issue.
Jaysus a Z lister looking for publicity !
If you’re one in the video unravelled that scarf around her neck and spread it across the entrance to the fjord it’d solve the problem.
Let them travel to Gaza, and stop the slaughter there.
I have tasted whale. It is delicious.
have your say