Stop Grindadráp / Stop whaling in the Faroe Islands
Whaling in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic is the hunting and slaughter of mainly long-finned pilot whales when they swim near the islands, and has been practiced since about the time of the first Norse settlements on the islands. The whaling is mentioned in the Sheep Letter, a Faroese law from 1298, a supplement to the Norwegian Gulating law. It is regulated by the Faroese authorities. Around 800 long-finned pilot whales and some Atlantic white-sided dolphins are killed annually, mainly during the summer. The hunts, called grindadráp in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level. Anyone who has a special training certificate on slaughtering a pilot whale with the spinal-cord lance can participate. This was not necessary earlier, but because of constant criticism from animal welfare organizations, the Faroese people try to improve the slaughtering methods in order to make them more humane. The Grind law was updated in 2015, where one of the regulations demanded that the whalers followed a course on how to slaughter a pilot whale with the spinal-cord lance. The police and Grindaformenn are allowed to remove people from the grind area.[2] The hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. The boats then drive the pilot whales into a bay or to the bottom of a fjord. Not all bays are certified, and the slaughter will only take place on a certified beach.
Many Faroese consider the hunt an important part of their food culture and history. Animal rights groups criticize the hunt as being cruel and unnecessary.[7][8][9] In November 2008, Høgni Debes Joensen, chief medical officer of the Faroe Islands and Pál Weihe, scientist, have recommended in a letter to the Faroese government that pilot whales should no longer be considered fit for human consumption because of the high level of mercury, PCB and DDT derivatives.[10][11] However, the Faroese government did not forbid whaling. On 1 July 2011 the Faroese Food and Veterinary Authority announced their recommendation regarding the safety of eating meat and blubber from the pilot whale, which was not as strict as the one of the chief medical officer. The new recommendation says only one dinner with whale meat and blubber per month, with a special recommendation for younger women, girls, pregnant women and breastfeeding women. From 2002 to 2009 the PCB concentration in whale meat has fallen by 75%, DDT values in the same time period have fallen by 70% and mercury levels have also fallen.
Got this from Wikipedia for those who don't know something about this horrible massacre.
It is a "tradition" that should not be a "tradition" any longer!
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