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[starlagurl]

I was forwarded this email to me and although the photos look kind of fake... I looked on Snopes, and they say that it's real, but Snopes says that it is in fact a whale hunt.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/dolphinhunt.asp

Can anyone verify this whaling festival?

[ligeia]

I was forwarded this email to me and although the photos look kind of fake... I looked on Snopes, and they say that it's real, but Snopes says that it is in fact a whale hunt.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/dolphinhunt.asp

Can anyone verify this whaling festival?

It is in fact a whale hunt. It's not exactly from Denmark, though, but from the Faroe Islands - a former colony of Denmark. Try to google "grindedrab" ("killing of grinder" grinde being the the specific whale species), then you'll see that the pictures are not fake.

[starlagurl]

What do they do with all those whales afterwards? Just throw them out?

[ligeia]

Well. they kill them and then they divide the meat between the people who live in the area (according to Danish wikipedia). Then they eat them. Apparantly it's all non-commercial.

It's a blurry topic. Morally speaking, I mean. It's an old tradition and I believe there are strict rules as to how the whales are killed. But it looks bloody and unnecessary. I don't know. I'm from Denmark, and it's discussed in the media every year. But it's hard to get the facts. People argue with their feelings, if you know what I mean, and the pictures are disgusting. On the other hand I don't believe that commercial breeding of other meat (like swine and cows) is better. The animals suffer just as much, I mean.

I'm not a vegetarian, so I don't think I'm really in a position to judge the whale hunters. Unless the grindes are a threathened species, because then it would obviously be wrong. I don't know if they are, though.

[starlagurl]

Hmm, I agree with you. I'm not sure how this is worse than killing cows and pigs, the optics just look terrible. You can't hide this away in a slaughterhouse like the daily massacre of cows are... so it hurts people more to see it...

The difference is that I think that most ocean mammals are endangered, or at least at risk of becoming endangered, simply because of the terrible state our oceans are in...

I just looked it up and it seems that there are a lot of these whales: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_whale#P...nd_distribution

I know they are not on the endangered species list yet.