Regulation change a green light for brutal hunts in Faroes
Faroese authorities have announced that they have now amended laws that mean those taking part in the Island's brutal whale and dolphin hunts can continue safe in the knowledge that they are unlikely to be prosecuted for animal welfare violations.
Hunting groups were delighted with the decision by Congress to amend an Act, which now stipulates that hunting and fishing is legally exempt from animal welfare laws.
This backwards step is cruel blow for whale and dolphin protection and follows the latest hunts (known as the grind) that claimed the lives of around 400 pilot whales in Tórshavn, and 168 white-sided dolphins reportedly slaughtered on a beach in Skalabotnur.
The drive hunts involve herding whales and dolphins into inlets using small boats and then slaughtering them in a very rudimentary way. Paralysed and killed with a spinal lance (a tool with a double-edged blade), their deaths are agonising and often slow. In the latest hunts, witnesses saw knives used instead of the lance, which will have prologued the agony for many of those killed and, ironically, is a huge welfare concern.
These hunts are pointless. The meat is not need by the Islanders for survival and much of it is contaminated with heavy metals causing Faroese health authorities to issue toxicity warnings for those who may wish to eat it.
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