Every year at an annual “celebration,” approximately 2,000 pilot whales are driven into a bay in the Faroe Islands and slaughtered in the most brutal fashion possible, not for food but as part of some prehistoric notion of recreation. We bring this quite barbaric “sport” to the attention of our readers as the Faroe Islands are a protectorate of Denmark, the country where the recent international climate change conference was held. Now while the Faroe Islands are under the overall supervision of Denmark, the islands have their own government led by a Prime Minister, Kaj Leo Johannesen. Nonetheless, it cannot be that the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Rasmussen, can be chairing and guiding international discussions on conservation, appreciation for the natural environment and habitat of the world, not forgetting the ecological and animal life of the planet, while that kind of inhumane slaughter of harmless whales and dolphins are taking place in his country.

A description of the slaughter gives something of the practice which seems to have been going on for generations. From motorboats, the islanders drive the whales into a bay. Confused and exhausted, the animals beach themselves on the shore. The report states that the hunters, or whatever is the correct description of them, hammer 2.2 kg metal gaffs into the living flesh of the whales; a 15-cm knife is then used to slash the blubber and flesh to the spinal column of the whales. The Faroese then celebrate their butchery in a carnival-like atmosphere. Schoolchildren are often given the day off to participate and watch the “fun.” The meat of the whales is not generally eaten but left to rot in the blood-red bay. We spare our readers further sordid details of this “sport,” unbelievable in the 21st century in a so-called civilised country of Europe. International environmental groups are bringing this practice to the attention of people all around the world as this is the business of everyone, everywhere. From that position of knowledge, the environmentalists, human beings with an appreciation for the creation and all of God’s creatures, are seeking to lobby against the Danish Government, which at least quietly condones the annual killings.

When he was here at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November and during the Copenhagen conference which he chaired, Prime Minister Rasmussen seemed and sounded like a reasonable man genuinely interested in protecting all forms of life here on Earth. And maybe he is but is constrained by the tradition of whale killing and the politics normally associated with protectorates and their protectors. So maybe, taking the most generous view, Prime Minister Rasmussen needs pressure and at the same time the support of the international community of nations to begin to counter this extremely savage and primitive practice of annually killing thousands of dolphin whales. It is a responsibility to bring pressure to bear on the Danish Prime Minister. We therefore recommend this course to Prime Minister Patrick Manning and all other Caricom leaders who certainly now have the attention of Prime Minister Rasmussen.

It is impossible for countries of the world to be genuinely concerned about the environmental future of this planet while continuing to either enthusiastically support this practice in the Faroe Islands, or negligently turn the other way when it is happening. One part of the problem related to failures to fully implement the Kyoto Protocol ten years after it was accepted and the inability of the world community to reach accord on a follow-up treaty is that there is little genuine commitment to implementation of policies and the ending of practices which now seriously impact world health.