I’m vegan.
I’m in love with the Faroe Islands.
I’m sad about the killing of every kind of animal.
I’m just a photographer, therefore, I’m not involved in the whale hunt.
I’m disappointed about the strategy of associations that should protect wild nature.
Today, again, the sea turned red in the Faroes. They killed a pod of pilot whales. They do that just for having free and local food to be shared with locals. This is a tiny and remote archipelago far away from continents.
People always push me to show in my photos also the whale hunt. They say I’m hiding the real truth of the “ferocious islands”. And I really don’t understand why. Every country kills animals. Following the requests of these people, I’m wondering if I should take pictures of the slaughterhouses in every country I go. Should I ask people to turn vegan because I’m a better person than them?
This photo is the only thing I’m going to show you. The reason is simple: this is what happens in every slaughterhouse. Now it’s the water that turned red, but this could be the floor of a slaughterhouse, but here in the Faroes there are no walls hiding the facts. Probably we should pretend to open the doors of every slaughterhouse in the world and let people see what happens every day.
Unfortunately, some associations are not doing a good job in defending the whales. They spread fake news and hate against the Faroese in order to let their supporters open their pockets. And recently they asked to boycott again everything is connected to the Faroes: economy, tourism, festivals. I wonder what’s the point of doing that and why they don’t do the same with every country in order to be merely coherent! In Italy they kill tuna even in a worse way. In the UK they export a huge amount of fins of endangered sharks. In Norway they kill big whales. In Canada they kill seals. Thousands of animals die as a result of bycatch. Etc. All these countries are impoverishing nature just for commercial reasons. In the Faroes the whale hunt is NOT commercial.
So why are people so focused on the Faroe Islands?
Who are these people entitled to say the Faroe Islands are evil?
Who are these people entitled to judge a foreign country when their country is doing maybe even worse things?
Opinion piece written by Alessio Mesiano
On: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=885163978527584&id=188027061574616
Image credits: Alessio Mesiano
This opinion piece was written following yesterday´s “Grindadráp” in the village of Hvalvík
Read more: 23 pilot whales killed in a ‘Grindadráp’ in Hvalvík; Sea Shepherd crew live stream event