Iceland: Whaling Temporarily Suspended
In Iceland, no whale hunting may take place until the end of August. There are doubts as to whether the activity is compatible with animal welfare legislation.
Whale hunting incompatible with animal welfare law
An inspection report by the veterinary authority in Iceland concluded that the killing of the animals during the previous season had taken too long, the ministry wrote.
An expert council on animal welfare was subsequently commissioned to examine whether whaling is even compatible with Icelandic animal welfare law. In a statement, the council concluded that the catching method used in hunting large whales is not in accordance with the law.
Activity may have no future
If the government and licence holders cannot guarantee the requirements of animal welfare, then this activity has no future, Fisheries Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir made clear.
Given the experts' assessment, it was necessary to postpone the start of the whaling season, the ministry said. In practice, however, the decision could mean that no whales are caught in Iceland at all this year: normally the hunting season runs from around mid-June to September.
A representative of the whaling company Hvalur recently told the trade journal «Fiskifrettir» that, weather permitting, the hunting season would begin this Wednesday. Hvalur reportedly has the necessary documents and licences in place. More on the topic of species conservation and animal rights.
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More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
