Large group of pilot whales slaughtered in Faroes hunt

Reports from the Faroes suggest that over 150 pilot whales have been killed in the first drive hunt (grind) of the year . The slaughter, which involves the herding of whales by boats into shallow coves, took place on the island of Vágar in the northwest of the Faroe Islands.

The grinds are an extremely inhumane practice and several thousand pilot whales have been killed in recent years. Pilot whales live in tight-knit social groups and many are killed in front of their family members. Once driven to the shore, blunt-ended metal hooks inserted into their blowholes are used to drag the whales up the beach or in the shallows, where they are killed with a knife cut to their major blood vessels. Other species, including bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic white-sided dolphins and northern bottlenose whales are still hunted for their meat in the Faroe Islands.

More on whale and dolphin hunts in the Faroe Islands