Animal rights group: Faeroes should end dolphin slaughters

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

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The international animal rights group Sea Shepherd said Wednesday 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 slaughtered for their meat and blubber.

A local activist published gruesome video footage of Sunday's slaughter of 1,428 white-sided dolphins on the central Faeroese island of Eysturoy in the North Atlantic archipelago. The number of dolphins was so large — much higher than in previous years — that it appears participants may not have been able to follow regulations to minimize the suffering of the mammals.

“It was a complete disaster, completely unprecedented in fact, it could even be the largest single hunt of cetaceans in documented history anywhere in the world,” said Robert Read, campaign director for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Environmental activists have long claimed the practice is cruel. But this year even people on the Faeroes who defend the four-century-old practice have spoken out amid fears that this year's slaughter will draw unwanted attention.