250 whales are chased onto beach so villagers can hack them to death

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Metro UK

250 whales are chased onto beach so villagers can hack them to death
Amy Willis for Metro.co.uk
Saturday 25 Jul 2015 12:51 pm

These are the horrific scenes after a mass slaughter of 250 whales in the Faroe Islands.



The pods of pilot whales were rounded up by fisherman on motorboats and chased inland to where hundreds of villagers were waiting to hack them to death. Locals can then be seen smiling as they leap into the water in wetsuits armed with knives and harpoons to stab them to death.

The water around the mammals can be seen turning red with the creature’s blood throughout the massacre. Young children can even be seen watching on from the shoreline.

Footage of the hunt in the archipelago was captured by activists from Sea Shepherd, a non-profit organisation committed to preserving marine life. Five activists from Sea Shepherd were arrested while trying to stop the hunt while Ricky Gervais condemned the massacre on Twitter.

The killings on two beaches in Bøur and Tórshavn is part of an annual tradition in the Denmark-owned Faroe Islands called the grindadráp. The tradition dates back hundreds of years.



Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/25/250-whales-are-chased-onto-beach-so-villagers-can-hack-them-to-death-5312162/#ixzz3gwbnrSnc

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[center]

How is this different from the Japanese massacres of porpoises? [/center]

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. This story lacks context. Why do they do this?

Is it an exercise in atavistic barbarism?

Are they going to feast on whale meat for the next few months?

I don't know, but killing animals isn't a pretty business. You ought to see a slaughter house.

[Scootaloo]

3. They eat them. It's an annual subsistence killing

The Faroes aren't exactly a greeat palce for livestock - their sheep are more valuable for milk and wool, and they're in the middle of the North Atlantic, so it's not like htye can get meat from Danish markets.

[azurnoir]

8. yep

did you see the Whale Wars episodes filmed in the Faroes?

[chervilant]

2. A "tradition"!?!

Yeah, we used to have a tradition in the United States of owning slaves. We've evolved beyond that travesty (although racism is ubiquitous, and many of us are trapped in a new form of "indentured servitude" to the uber wealthy corporate megalomaniacs).

We used to have a tradition of allowing men to beat their wives, as long as the implement they chose to use was not bigger in diameter than their thumb (hence, "rule of thumb&quot . We have at least acknowledged that men should not beat their wives, and we've codified punishments for such behavior (although said punishments are seldom stringent or deterrent, and relationship violence remains a constant in our society).

We still have dog fights and cock fights, and all manner of disrespectful abuse of animals, so it might strike some of us as hypocritical to berate other cultures for their massacres of sentient creatures...

Our species is the embarrassment of this universe: narcissistic, hedonistic, abusive, and--all too often--willfully ignorant.

[Igel]

16. Nobody ate their slaves, wives, or (usually) the dead dogs or cocks.

We still, however, think it's great that Native American tribes in the Pac NW have their salmon slaughter season.

And you don't want to know where your meat and fish come from.

[restorefreedom]

17. these animals are highly intelligent

and the method of "slaughter" is exceedingly inhumane. it needs to stop, tradition or not.

[MBS]

42. " " " " n/t

[chernabog]

23. Pretty simple

Don't eat animals

[christx30]

30. With that little land,

they don't have enough farms to sustain their people. You eat what you have.

[chernabog]

38. They import a lot of their food already

Soooooo, no, they eat what they import.
This isn't the 17th century.

[restorefreedom]

44. what you said. nt

[restorefreedom]

43. haven't for 30 yrs

honestly don't think i am. missing anything except heart disease and guilt.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. ugh

[AuntPatsy]

5. Sick

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Anybody who eats meat probably shouldn't get too bent about this.

They are harvesting the whale meat.

Where does your meat come from?

[azurnoir]

9. whale meat is and has been a regular part of the diet in the Faroes for centuries

and as such I can no more condemn them than I could Inuit hunters

[Sunlei]

33. KILL one at a time is CENTURIES OLD 'tradition'. motorboats and nets make it a carnage, slaughter

they may as well open a factory whale breeding farm, a SeaWorld type breeding farm. with nets on their shoreline.

and then go into a group of terrified whales with steel spears and stab 100 to death at the same time. After they pull out the picks to sell around the world to all the 'Sea Worlds' in many countries. China probably can use more breeder whales in their giant new Sea World 20 mile square complex of hotels.

Oh this is our culture and tradition so its always ok

[wordpix]

46. THIS^^^^ people needing whales for subsistence should do it the old way

get out in small boats and harpoon one at a time. Otherwise it's mass slaughter and murder

[Exultant Democracy]

55. They would get into boats and heard passing pods into the bay the same way using drums

to scare them, if they did it anything like other native groups with similar festivals I am aware of. This type of mass slaughter was just so much safer for substance hunters that it was preferred over th risk of the open ocean.

[Exultant Democracy]

52. I would be interested in where you got this data. Herding megafauna for massive hunts is

far from new. Human hunters have been using tricks like this as far back as the data goes according to my understanding of anthropology. If you would like to suggest that hunters never herded large groups of bison driving them over the cliffs you will need to present some evidence that will both support your novel concept of what constituted traditional hunting behavior and falsify our current understanding.

They may be using motor boats now, but a few hundred years ago they would have used wooden boats with oars and pounded large drums to scare whales, herding them into their bay. If you have some evidence that this is actually a modern invention and that they used to only kill one whale at a time during this festival please present that too.

[chernabog]

53. Do hunters still herd bison over cliffs?

[Exultant Democracy]

54. Non traditional methods of hunting by whites and genocide ended that way of life.

Even calling what white people did hunting is probably wrong since most of the meat was left to rot in the sun.

[mike_c]

11. this is subsistance hunting....

Yes, I'd rather they didn't eat cetaceans, and the mercury levels are apparently high enough to recommend strictly limiting whale meat consumption. The bloody water makes a damning image, but it's actually the result of quick, merciful killing-- the spinal lance used to kill within seconds also severs major arteries, draining the circulatory system with a very rapid bleed out. Whales are not bludgeoned or slashed indiscriminately. The hunt is very strictly regulated.

This is what carnivory looks like. Meat is dead animal tissue. A slaughterhouse is no less alarming, frankly. Hungry people are not as squeamish as the well fed.

[restorefreedom]

19. sure super painless

until they fail to render the animal dead or unconcious and it is still alive when they skin it.

don't even know what the fuss is about

[Sunlei]

35. its like some peoples eyes are blind, don't even notice* every baby seal has a terrified mother seal

*or care or even care that some humans care and are upset

this is my angry
Its like some people may as well say what they actually feel-- a big fuck you animal lovers, you you fools with empathy.

"you stupid tree huggers we're gonna' let them skin this dog alive, we're gonna' makes the bays run red with 1,000 MOTOR BOAT rounded up dolphins, we're gonna let Japan use giant ships and missle harpoons to get whales for scientific research, because people gotta eat, its culture, its science, its been done for thousands of years!!"

[restorefreedom]

39. humans are truly

the worst thing to happen to the planet and the animals. they have tortured and destroyed nearly every species and the planet itself

[restorefreedom]

18. wrong. it is a celebration or carnage

and it is most definitely NOT quick or merciful. they have studied this. most of the killers are not that good and the animals linger in agony while they die and watch their family members die.

this is horrific barbarity and it needs to end.

[Sunlei]

34. whats quick and merciful about the round-up? sometimes takes days and days.

[chernabog]

13. These fucks really don't need to kill these whales

It is a terrible "tradition" that needs to be stopped.

[Exultant Democracy]

56. Are you going to pay to replace this part of their diet?

They need this more than any american needs a cheeseburger that is for sure. Anyone fair would understand that an American going to a Mcdonald's is far more offensive to nature and the dignity of life than this.

[chernabog]

57. They don't need it

Just like Americans don't need to eat McDonald's.

[Exultant Democracy]

58. They eat all the meat and they are poor. Where do they get food? In the US there are alternatives

what alternative do these islanders have? What they don't catch they have to import, who pays for that? Or are you saying they just don't need food?

[chernabog]

59. I'm sure Denmark wouldn't let them starve.

[Exultant Democracy]

60. Great problem solving!

[blackspade]

14. Well now we know why they detained Sea Shepard....

Why do this? Not for food obviously. Is the population there high enough to need 250 whale carcasses?
They are wiping out whole family groups doing this.
Assholes

[Comrade Grumpy]

15. You should be better informed about this practice. Here's a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_the_Faroe_Islands

They do it precisely for food.

They have a population of 50,000.

The hunt is strictly regulated and done by communities, not commercial enterprises.

Their diet is mainly meat because they can't grow much there.

They've been doing it for a thousand years.

[restorefreedom]

20. slavery went on for years too

that justification of tradition is bullshit. these people unnecessarily and gleefully torture sentient creatures who are probably more intelligent than we are.

it is a celebration of barbarity and represents the worst of what humans have to offer the world.

[IHateTheGOP]

22. I guess that explains it

[blackspade]

24. That doesn't make it any better.

They still wipe out entire family groups reducing the genetic diversity of the local population.

[McCamy Taylor]

26. So, if mass shooters ate their victims that would make it ok?

[IHateTheGOP]

21. Come quickly from the cosmos intelligent life and finish us off

[ZombieHorde]

29. That would be an interesting day.

All of our other perceived problems would seem so trivial on that day.

[IHateTheGOP]

50. And I'd dare say we would finally unite.

[Taitertots]

36. The irony of wanting more intelligent life to kill us..,

For killing less intelligent life.

[IHateTheGOP]

51. That's my point. Turn about is fair play.

[McCamy Taylor]

25. By this reasoning mass shootings are a proud human tradition to be celebrated.

[ZombieHorde]

28. We do celebrate mass shootings when we label them "war."

Personally, I value human life much more than a whale's life. Most likely because I am a human. I admit that this is a bias. Do you value human life and whale life equally?

[ZombieHorde]

27. I went hunting when I was kid.

I have no guilt about that. I've fished from time to time. I eat a lot of fish. Same thing in my mind. I feel like I would be a hypocrite to condemn the eating of whales or porpoises. I value a whale's life more than a salmon's life, but I recognize the fact that this value is arbitrary and meaningless.

[Sunlei]

32. right. but did you drive 100 deer into corrals using ATVs and 20 helper,when you were a hunting kid?

[ZombieHorde]

45. No, but we had a fridge full of food at home.

I didn't go hunting with my whole town.

[Sunlei]

31. dates back hundreds of years. not the motorboat and net use. one whale at a time is tradition &

culture. Same goes for Japans 'rape of quantities of sea creatures' claiming 'culture and tradition'

[dembotoz]

37. wonder how the folks in india who treasure cows view our cattle industry

[Exultant Democracy]

47. No shit, these islanders are infinitely less disgusting

Anyone who eats meat and is outraged by this is a cretin of the first order.

As a lifelong vegetarian if there is anything like moral authority on the issue I have it. If so my ruling is that the westerners should consider laying aside their white man's burden until the last factory farm turns off it's final death treadmill.

[MBS]

41. Yes indeed.

In Japan at least, the dolphin- and whale-killing doesn't even make any economic sense.
I know less about the situation for the Faroe Islands, but massacre of 250 whales is about as horrific as it gets.

[SCVDem]

48. This is ghastly on its face, BUT...

Let's look at "God's Creation".

Who creates a world where survival is dependent on catching and ripping the flesh from still living
creatures? Who in thee hell calls this "intelligent design "?

A world populated by air fern types would make more sense.

Would anyone care to 'splain this to me?

That is one reason I dismiss religion.

ID?

You must be shitting me!

[Exultant Democracy]

49. Time for DU to play the ethnocentrism game

as always proving our capacity to indulge in the simplest forms of classic bigotry with hardly any self awareness.