Causecast

by PHILIP ROSS, Causecast Editor

Perusing my e-mail inbox, I stumbled upon a chain mail titled World SHAME and, being the curious cat that I am, I opened it. I ended up scrolling through a series of photos showing the massacre of hundreds and hundreds of small whales on an island somewhere in Europe.

My initial reaction was what you would expect: disgust, and a desire to immediately sign the petition at the bottom of the e-mail to stop whale slaughter.

Then the wheels in my head started turning, and I had this overwhelming desire to learn more. So with some research, this is what I came up with:

Grindadráp. It means “whale hunt” in Faroese, and it happens once a year on the Faroe Islands, a Danish territory located about half way between Scotland and Iceland. Around 1,000 pilot whales are killed during this celebrated butchering. It’s a family affair, with children, moms and dads lining the shoreline to witness.

The images we see in the media of this event are gruesome, to the say the least – blood-stained beaches riddled with the convulsing, twitching, thrashing bodies of pilot whales, the young men hunched over their catch, knives in hand, cutting away at the flesh of these sleek sea voyagers, while an eager audience looks on with enthusiasm and satisfaction.

Crimson water and writhing whale bodies; enough to churn the most resilient of stomachs.

Local Faroe say this ritual is of dietary value – whale meat being the staple protein source for the Faroe population. The catch is distributed equally among the communities for consumption, regardless of who participates in the hunt, providing their supply of meat for the year. I checked the U.S Fish and Wildlife threatened and endangered species list, and the pilot whale was no where to be found. In fact, I learned that about a million of these beautiful creatures still exist in the wild, and, at the rate the Faroese are catching them, this does not pose a threat to the pilot whale population.

While I’m an animal lover at heart, I’m also not a full vegetarian. Slap a hunk of raw tuna on my plate and I find my nirvana. I also enjoy chicken, yet have phased red meat and pork out of my diet for good. This decision stems from three convictions: one, the negative environmental implications of cattle farms; two, the horrible conditions in which livestock in the U.S. is raised; and three, the fact that millions of people around the world go without food while we pump our cattle full of grain – sustenance that could easily support human life instead. But, as a fish eater, I can’t blame someone for killing and eating something from the sea.

On the other hand, the Faroese Ministry of Health has issued statements regarding the health concerns associated with whale meat consumption, citing the high levels of contaminants – including mercury (another consequence of man’s uncanny ability to pollute the natural world) – in whale blubber. This evidence has shown that eating pilot whale meat is dangerous to the human body, and should only happen on occasion.

In my opinion, the way in which the pilot whales around the Faroe islands are killed for consumption is a far more humane way of providing food for a nation of 48,000 than the methods employed in the U.S. The deaths of the pilot whales are quick, in stark contrast to the suffering our livestock endure throughout their miserable life spans. Chickens stored in cramped, dilapidated structures, their beaks severed, their bodies pumped full of hormones until they can no longer stand. Cattle branded time and time again, castrated with a pair of sheers and without anesthetics, only to live life prodded, poked and tormented, to meet their end by the brunt of a wooden club or nail gun.

I think we need to see dramatic transformations take place in the American meat industry before we tackle issues over whaling. Or this particular issue of whaling.

While scrolling through article after article from small, local news sources, discussing the Faroe island pilot whale killings, something began to bother me. Many people write that they are “shocked” this sort of thing could happen in Europe. One blogger commented that she thought this sort of “barbaric practice” only happened in “third world” countries – as if being European, western, and white somehow puts you above this sort of thing. The assumption is somewhere along the lines, I’m guessing, that in a “civilized,” developed nation, how can this happen? This, i think, is the real catastrophe.

But in the end, you be the judge: is grindadráp a justifiable part of Faroese culture, or an unnecessary massacre of animal life? If you’re gut tells you that whale life should be preserved, not hunted down, sign the petition to stop the whale killings in the Faroe Islands.

Also, check out Farm Sanctuary, an organization working to end the cruel treatment of animals in industries that treat them as money-making commodities. You can donate to their cause to help transform the American meat industry. Another organization advocating the fair treatment of animals is the Humane Society. You can donate to help the Humans Society bring justice to all life on earth.

Photo by ahisgett, flickr.