Dear Sir,

I am pleading with you to suspend Denmark's annual subsidy to the Faroe Islands until an agreement to phase out and end the Faroe Islands' pilot whale 'grind hunts' has been signed between the Faroese home rule government and the Kingdom of Denmark. Hundreds of long-finned pilot whales have been killed in the Faroe Islands, a Danish protectorate, since July of 2015.

I am horrified that this hunt is conducted in the name of tradition by wealthy islanders, who have no subsistence need for whale meat. The hunt, known as a 'grind', is horrifically cruel, using fishing boats to drive North Atlantic and migratory North Sea Pilot whales into shore and roping and hauling on them until they beach themselves, then sawing at their heads with long knives, severing their spines, and letting them bleed to death.

Aside from the fact that the number of North Atlantic long-finned pilot whales is unknown and they are listed as 'strictly protected' by the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, this is an act of barbarism and pointlessness. By slaughtering 100 whales at a time, the Faroese are wiping out entire pods and family groups. They are removing building blocks from the gene pool of the species and damaging the web of life in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.

The Faroese claim that the whales are killed for meat, that they depend upon the meat and that none of the meat is wasted. But in fact, there is video evidence that entire carcasses are dumped and lie rotting on the bottom of the ocean. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duuUQNm0hVQ

The question is: Are Faroese deficient in the availability of meat?

There are about 70,000 sheep in the Faroes, about 20,000 more sheep than people. In fact the word Faroe means sheep. The Islands of sheep. Every year the Faroese slaughter about 30,000 sheep mainly 7 year old animals and lambs.

The Faroese salmon farms produce about 70 tons of salmon every year. The Faroese have an efficient industrialized deep-sea fishing fleet. These two industries give the Faroes the highest per capita income of any country in Europe.

The Faroese complain that they have to import vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, fruits. The reality is that they would still be importing the same foods without killing whales. They also import computers, cars and all the luxuries of western civilization. They pay for these things with the large scale exploitation of fish and their salmon farms.

Regardless, of whether 'Faroese home rule' means they are virtually an independent nation, their whale hunt IS Denmark's responsibility as the Faroe Islands are an overseas administrative division of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Queen of Denmark is the Faroes' head of state, Denmark is their international representative, their law is the Danish constitution, their money is the Danish crown, and your government gifts them one billion of those crowns every year in an annual subsidy.

The slaughter of whales in the Faroes has been observed for many years. What is seen are a group of people (not all Faroese) that are obsessed with the killing. It is seen in their excitement to rush into the sea to slaughter the whales, it is heard in their cheers and laughs, it seen in the joy they exhibit when they plunge their blades into the flesh of these gentle creatures. It is seen in their children mutilating the bodies and playing with whale fetuses or poking out their eyes.

The whales do not die to provide meat. The Faroese kill because they believe it is a part of their tradition to kill whales, yet their ancestors did not have helicopters to spot them, motor boats to drive them, hydraulic cranes and trucks to transport them. a Danish Navy to protect them. Their ancestors also had something that the Faroese do not have today and that was 'subsistence neccesity'.

I will boycott the Faroe Islands, your country and it's exports, and I will advise my friends, family and clients to do the same until you stop this outrageous abuse of marine animals in your waters.

Yours Sincerely,