Cruelty in Tradition: 1400 Dolphins Killed in an Annual Sea Hunt

ALBAWABA – Killing of beautiful dolphins and mammals is considered part of a cultural identity in Faroe Islands of Denmark but this is totally rejected by animal rights activists.

Indeed, you can imagine their horror after reading a BBC report about the killing of 1400 dolphins in one day after boats hoarded the white dolphins to Skalabotnur beach in Eysturoy and begun to slaughter them in what became a sea of blood. But the islanders maintain the such practice is also a means of gathering food from nature.

However, many on the social media carried the report and commented on such practice that clearly upset even the locals.

The hunt for mammals is common among people living in this part of Denmark but many are saying this scale of killing is just utterly unacceptable and it has got to stop because people’s cruelty to animals it is just “astounding” and that these creatures must not be treated like “commodity”.

After seeing the report on BBC News many say they are totally “shocked”, “speechless” and “appalled” at what they have seen by those people and this annual hunt, called the Grindadrap, with the animals killed by men with knives to their necks and with harpoons which are traditionally used for capturing whales and large fish.

Social media comments and tags continue with the use of graphic terms like “wholesale slaughter” while others say such hunt is “brutal”, “barbaric”, ‘mass murder” and unacceptable to the eco-system that goes against the very heart of western civilization.

Many say this tradition has to end and the Faroe Islands will no longer be on their “bucket list for tourism as they will no longer go to destinations that take pleasure in this sort of thing.