Who are the animals that have most inspired people in 2013 to add their voices to the growing movement for animals? Leading up to the end of the year, AWP is celebrating the causes, campaigns and characters that have been at the forefront of helping make history for animals. Each day until the end of the year we’ll be focusing on another story. Please share far and wide.

Day 8: The Pilot Whale

There is no easy way to address the slaughter of thousands of intelligent, social mammals. It feels perhaps even worse when the slaughter is not thousands of miles away, but so much closer to home.

Such a slaughter takes place each year in the Faroe Islands, northwest from the Shetland Isles. The hunts, called a grind, have been around since at least the year 1584 (when records began recording the hunts) when whale was a main source of food. But today there remains no reasonable excuse for such slaughter.

This year, over 1,000 pilot whales have been killed, in grinds of over 100 whales at a time. There have also been 430 white-sided dolphins killed by the Faroese. This was an entire pod—a family—of dolphins, the largest slaughter of these intelligent, playful mammals since 1994.

Pilot whales live in families called pods of between 10 and 30 members. They use vocalisations to call to each other, and engage in social behavior such as providing food for their kin. They also have matrilineal structures to their families, and mothers and calves remain close.

The IUCN lists both species as “Data Deficient” in the Red List of Threatened Species. This means we don’t know how many of pilot whales there are while these hunts continue.

Stirred to action by the horrific images coming from the Faroe Islands, next year the anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd will conduct Operation Grindstop 2014, to defend the whales and dolphins around the Faroe Islands.

In 2011 during a previous campaign, ‘Operation Ferocious Isles’, not a single whale or dolphin was killed on the beaches of the Faroe Islands while Sea Shepherd patrolled.

The Animal Welfare Party’s position is that all whaling activities should be rejected, and that the UK should push for a total ban.

In India in 2013 dolphins were classified as nonhuman persons, and given rights accordingly such as the banning of dolphin shows in aquariums. We are working hard to bring such enlightened policies into force here, which is why we are standing for representation for animals in the European Parliament.

Can you make 2014 an even safer place for cetaceans like the pilot whale and white-sided dolphin by becoming a visionary for animals? Support the Animal Welfare Party’s campaign in the EU Elections in May. If you live in London you can PLEDGE TO VOTE, and if you live anywhere and care about animals you can support us in our campaign to raise funds. Fundraising is crucial in our efforts to make history for animals. Make the difference now.

Image of grind © Campaign Whale

You can take action via EIA-International’s campaign page against the grind.