Animal rights group: Faeroes should end dolphin slaughters

By JAN M. OLSEN
Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The animal rights group Sea Shepherd says it hopes that pressure will build from within the Faeroe Islands to end its traditional drive of sea mammals into shallow water where they are killed for their meat and blubber. Wednesday’s statement comes after Sunday’s slaughter of 1,428 white-sided dolphins on a central island in the North Atlantic archipelago. The four-century-old tradition is not commercial and the meat is distributed among residents. Yet the size of this year’s slaughter is upsetting even some islanders. One former chairman of the sea mammal drive says says the practice gets criticized because “we have an open abattoir.” One video shows the bay’s waters red with dolphin blood.