Breaking : Faroese Parliament Removes the Grindadráp from Animal Welfare Protection

For years, defenders of the grindadráp have insisted that the slaughter of long-finned pilot whales and other dolphin species in the Faroe Islands is “highly regulated” and conducted under strict legislation. Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK has always rejected that narrative. The grindadráp is, and always has been, an act of extreme cruelty that inflicts prolonged physical agony and psychological trauma on highly intelligent, socially bonded marine mammals.

Now, the Faroese Parliament itself has exposed the truth behind those claims.

In a unanimous vote of 28 to 0, Faroese politicians have removed the grindadráp from the scope of the islands’ animal welfare legislation altogether. This extraordinary decision comes after legal pressure began to test whether the slaughter could actually meet the welfare standards the Faroese authorities claimed it already followed.

In 2024, a criminal case was opened against participants in the 1st June Hvannasund grind for alleged breaches of animal welfare law during a grind. A second case is also under consideration, a complaint having been lodged by CPWF UK concerning the actions of a number of participants in the 2025 Leynar grind. However, rather than allowing independent legal scrutiny to determine whether the actions of these individuals complied with animal welfare standards, Faroese lawmakers have chosen to exempt the grindadráp from those standards altogether.

Instead of following proper process and allowing the courts and independent legal experts to determine whether actions within the grindadráp have breached animal welfare standards, Faroese politicians have intervened through a parliamentary vote to remove the grind from the legislation altogether. Whether extreme animal suffering breaches welfare law should be determined through independent legal scrutiny, not political intervention designed to shield a controversial practice from accountability.

This marks a watershed moment.

The Faroese government can no longer credibly claim that the grindadráp is safeguarded by meaningful welfare legislation. By exempting the actions of all grind participants from the law, they have effectively acknowledged that the suffering inflicted during these mass killings cannot withstand legal examination under normal animal welfare standards.

This shows that politicians don’t care about animals. They only do it because of the next selection to get more votes. Most of the meat and blubber end up in the trash. It’s a big business selling that blubber and meat of the whale but now they can continue to torture a magnificent animal without any consequences. Don’t forget karma is real!

Palli Ásbjørnsson Justesen, Honorary ambassador CPWF UK

The decision is being celebrated by the grindadráp association because it shields participants from accountability under welfare legislation. But its implications are deeply disturbing. It means there is now effectively no legal protection against gratuitous suffering during a grind. No welfare threshold. No enforceable legal standard. No legal mechanism to challenge wanton cruelty.

This matters far beyond the Faroe Islands.

The removal of legal protections strips away one of the key narratives long used internationally to defend the grindadráp. Governments, conservation bodies, tourism operators, and international organisations must now confront the reality that these hunts are no longer even pretending to operate within recognised animal welfare principles.

For Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK, this vote changes the conversation entirely. The Faroese Parliament has demonstrated that protecting the continuation of the grindadráp is considered more important than protecting animals from suffering. When animal welfare protections are removed instead of enforced, it raises serious questions about the cruelty those protections were failing to defend.

The international community should recognise this decision for what it is: an admission that the grindadráp cannot withstand genuine scrutiny.