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Hundreds of whales and dolphins have been slaughtered off the coast of the Faroe Islands, with the sea turning red with blood during the annual hunt.
More than 700 animals were driven towards the shoreline and killed with hooks and long knives in hunts known locally as ‘the grind’ last week.
Welfare groups reacted with horror and condemnation after participants ran out of legally mandated spinal lances, specialised tools designed to sever the spinal cord quickly and reduce suffering.
Valentina Crast, campaign director for the Faroe Islands at global marine conservation organisation Sea Shepherd, described “chaotic scenes of extreme animal cruelty” and urged European governments to call for a ban on the practice.
Whales stranded on a beach amid the annual slaughter of hundreds of animals this year (Sea Shepherd)
Sea Shepherd tallied 402 pilot whales and four bottlenose dolphins killed in Tórshavn, 168 white-sided dolphins killed in Skalabotnur, and 132 white-sided dolphins killed in Hvalvik, for a total of 706.
In harrowing scenes on 27 May, fishermen could be seen wading through vibrant red water while dozens of carcasses lay dead on beaches, just 200 miles from Scotland in the Atlantic.
Children watched on as their bodies, slashed open with knives and exposing internal organs, piled high on the shoreline to be hauled off, strung up and mutilated.
The grindadráp hunts have taken place each summer for centuries in the Danish territory. Supporters say whaling is a sustainable way of gathering food and an important part of local identity.
More than 700 whales and dolphins were killed in massacres off the Faroe Islands in late May (Sea Shepherd)
The Faroese parliament this year voted unanimously to ensure local hunting regulations override the territory’s animal welfare laws in a move protecting whalers from prosecution for welfare violations.
Two observing Sea Shepherd crew members were arrested this year after being reported to police by whalers who claimed they had interfered into hunts – allegations denied by Sea Shepherd.
It comes despite mounting pressure from international animal rights groups and governments who decry the yearly slaughters and prolonged suffering of animals.
Elisa Allen, vice president of programmes at PETA, called for an immediate and permanent ban.
The waters around the Faroe Islands turned bright red with blood during the purges this year (Sea Shepherd)
“Every year, to the horror of the rest of the world, hundreds of whales and dolphins are chased into bays on the Faroe Islands and massacred in barbaric ways with metal hooks, which are driven into the stranded mammals’ blowholes before their spines are cut,” she said in a statement shared with The Independent.
“The animals cry out in pain. Whole families are slaughtered, and some animals are seen swimming around in their family members’ blood for hours. Whales and dolphins are highly intelligent and feel pain and fear every bit as much as humans do.
“PETA joins every other animal protection group – and every decent person on the planet – in decrying this ignorant, sadistic treatment of animals and calls on the prime minister of the Faroe Islands to impose an immediate and permanent ban on the massacre.”
