Every year in Faroe Islands – an autonomous region of 18 islets, politically associated with the Kingdom of Denmark – takes place an event called Grindadrap, the largest massacre of whales and dolphins in Europe.
During their migration in the open sea, animals are intercepted by fishing boats and pushed back to the shore where local people are ready to kill them all.
This slaughter is done by sticking harpoons into mammals blowholes first, then stabbing them to death… whole herds, families die in a never ending agony, close to each other, in excruciating pain.
It is a centuries-old ritual that even if once a time allowed the inhabitants of these lands in the Atlantic Ocean to be fed through the meat of these animals, it’s totally unnecessary nowadays and would be dangerous to the health of the people who decides to eat this kind of meat because of the excessive amount of mercury that it contains.
There would be no reason to perpetrate this barbaric practice, and is also why international laws worldwide protect these whales.
In Europe in particular, their protection is governed by the Berne Convention, an agreement in which Denmark also -together with the other member states of the European Union- is a signatory.
Despite this, Faroe Islands inhabitants continue with this barbarity, facilitated by the creation of ad-hoc local laws clearly contrary to the dictates of this convention.
Therefore anyone who tries to oppose this unnecessary massacre opposing a grindadrap, can be arrested by local police forces which, with the help of the Danish navy, spend their energies to this macabre massacre always takes place unimpeded.
Our correspondent asked local people about the reasons behind these brutal acts, collecting a lot of contraddictory answers which show the only motive left to justify this massacre is fun.
The Fun of Killing