The residents of Faroe Island, a providence of Denmark, slaughter hundreds of pilot whales every year in what they call their cultural tradition in a practice called grindadrap.
The pilot whales aren't actually whales, despite the name, they are dolphins. The intelligent creatures are crowded into a bay and killed by cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord. In the process, their main arteries get cut. It can take several minutes for the animals to die in this cruel, barbaric slaughter.
Pilot whales have been a central part of their diet for more than 1,000 years, making this inhumane ritual a cultural tradition. But due to the recent rise in mercury found in ocean animals, more than 5000 people have died from mercury poisoning from eating the whale, and mentally retarded children are being born at an alarming rate.
This annual tradition is neither good for the pilot whales, nor for human beings. Stop the Faroe Island pilot whale slaughter.
Kaj Leo Johannesen-First Minister of The Faroe Islands
Prime Minister's Office
Løgmansskrivstovan
Tinganes
P.O.Box 64
FO- 110 Tórshavn
Tel: +298 306000
Fax: +298 306015
E-mail: info@tinganes.fo
