They had a whale of a time

When my friend forwarded me a mail, I did not believe my eyes. Rather I choose not to believe it and considered it a hoax. The mail had some gory pictures of whales being slaughtered by men. When I say gory, they were horrific, believe me. I could substantiate it with posting the pictures in the blog, but I dont want to(another choice! ) This was a mail seeking condemnation against killing of whales in Denmark. But the accusation on a single country was too compelling with strong words used in the mail. So I had my favourite companion to dig on it, google.

I was in for a shock. So will you be. If the pictures I saw in the forward were gruesome, it was a rhyme book compared to the big novel in store. The killing of the ‘Pilot whale’ is a tradition in the Faroe Island. This island is a autonomous province of Denmark. Every year the slaughter of the Pilot whales is an annual event and about 950 of them are killed. The biggest sigh of relief for the whales is that due to ‘regulation’ the Faeroe’s use a Blunt gaff instead of an usual gaff when pulling the whale to the shore. (A gaff is a pole like device used for lifting the fish by stabbing it)

There have been many regulations on the ‘weapons’ used to kills these innocent animals on grounds of ‘cruelty’ towards them. But what about the actual cruelty on them committed by killing. Should that not be addressed rather than show kindness in the means of commuting the murder.

And a trivia : The sea turns ‘RED’ the day the whaling event takes place. It is truly the outcome of a battle which caused a ‘SEA OF BLOOD’.

But when a cow and pig can be killed for its meat, why not the Pilot whale? The Pilot whale at least lives a good life before it is killed for its meat. While the cow or pig is confined in facilities and fed solely for the sake of its meat. This is not my argument. This what the Faroese people say.
What do you say?

Being a vegetarian, my opinion is very biased. So I would like to hear what you think on it.Comment with your name or anonymously as you wish. And you are welcome to respond to comments posted by others in my blog also.

Link to a video on this hunting. If you are up to it, please click here

I am tagged - Quotes I like

Hey I have been tagged by Sanju (aka Harini). And this post is due to her friendly command. DO check out this seasoned blogger. Click here.
While collecting the quotes for this post, I went skimmed thorough portions of the books. It lead me to enjoy the feel of these books all over again.
I know this will not be a popular post among most of the readers, but do go through the quotes, maybe you will be able to connect with it.


To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.

"I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.... Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. "

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

"Thou art God," Mike repeated serenely. "That which groks. Anne is God. I am God. The happy grass are God, Jill groks in beauty always. Jill is God. All shaping and making and creating together — ." He croaked something in Martian and smiled.

"Thou art God"


Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense."


Fountain Head by Ayn Rand

"Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence."


Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is, they'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart girls do it.


What I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. I mean you can't help it sometimes. What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.

Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.