City Market in Burlington, Vermont presents itself as ‘environmentally-friendly’, selling health food items. However, they sell salmon from the Faroe Islands.
The Faroe Islands is infamous for the Grind, a “traditional” barbaric bloody slaughter of pilot whales (dolphins and porpoises as well) with an average of 880 pilot whales brutally slaughtered annually. The Faroe Islands are a territory of Denmark, a region that holds one of the highest standards of living in Europe, and while there is a ban on whaling in these waters per international law (IWC) Denmark protects the Grind through a small loophole.
Cetaceans (whales, dolphins) are self-aware, highly intelligent, social animals that move about in families or ‘pods’. Pods are driven by small boats creating harassing noise to frighten and panic the animals so as to move them into shallow water, where they are gaffed and stabbed. A single grind may completely decimate a pod, preventing reproduction and recruitment of any offspring. People on the islands used to eat the whale meat from the hunt, but the local chief medical officers have declared that pilot whale meat now contains too much mercury to be safe for human consumption. Many times the whale meat is simply left to rot on the beach.
This petition joins with others, from Hollywood stars, asking retailors to STOP selling salmon from the Faroe Islands. In this day and age, financial or economic pressure is the tool to create change: to help STOP the slaughter of pilot whales.
Update 7/31/16:
Friends, City Market has the largest sales volume of any single-store food co-op in the United States ($39 million a year) with another new store to open. The salmon they choose to sell financially supports the economy of the Faroe Islands and activities such as bloody barbaric slaughter of MANY whales. Just in one day last week, 150 whales were slaughtered with 5-6 whales surviving to swim in the blood of their family members as they are being gaffed, dragged and stabbed to death. City Market sees “no connection”. PLEASE - share this on Facebook, Twitter, email, Tumblr, etc. Thank you!
Dear Mr. John Tashiro, General Manager of City Market:
We, the undersigned, ask you to STOP selling salmon (or other products) from the Faroe Islands.
As you know, in this day and age, financial or economic pressure is the tool to create change. We, the undersigned, want an end to the pilot whale slaughter in the Faroe Islands.
We are hopeful that you truly want to live up to a reputation as a proactive environmentally-friendly health food store, by stopping the sale of Faroe Islands salmon in your store(s).
Thank you,
