Officials at Finnish Customs are weighing up the charges to be brought against five individuals interviewed in connection with the importation of around 36,000kgs of whale meat from Norway into Finland in 2022, in the form of sausages to be used as food for sled dogs.

Following an analysis and a preliminary investigation of the dog food, officials have concluded that half of the product contents contained meat from the common minke whale, one of the roughly 6,000 species currently protected by CITES against over-exploitation through trade.

The other half comprised poultry. Altogether, 720,000 kilogrammes of dog sausages entered Finland as imports from Norway where it is manufactured based on orders by a Finnish importer. Notably, this type of dog food is not sold in the market.

Potential charges to be brought against the individuals include both an aggravated nature conservation offence and a customs clearance office.

“Dog food containing whale meat was essentially imported because of the affordable prices,” said Tuomo Kunnari, lead investigator at Finnish Customs. “These imported quantities have fed a large number of dogs.”

The investigation started when Swedish customs authorities informed those at Finnish Customs of a cargo shipment on its way to Finland and the anomalies they discovered in the customs clearance documents. Swedish Customs intercepted the shipment and re-routed it to Norway.

The CITES Convention protects over 40,000 species of animals and plants threatened by international trade. The common minke whale is covered by the international CITES Convention. On top of this, the Finnish legal act on protecting whales and Arctic seals prohibits imports of whale meat and other whale products to Finland from all countries. Apart from the CITES Convention, national CITES legislation in Norway prohibits imports of the common minke whale to Finland for commercial purposes.

The investigation has been carried out as a joint effort across Finnish Customs and Swedish and Norwegian authorities. The Norwegian police authorities have conducted a preliminary investigation concerning illicit imports of whale meat from Norway to Finland.

According to a statement released by the Finnish officials, five individuals have been interviewed in connection with the case that involved an aggravated nature conservation offence and a customs clearance office.

The Prosecution District of Northern Finland is currently weighing charges in the case.

Back in 2021, documents revealing the dwindling domestic demand for whale meat shocked campaigners across the globe as it was revealed that most of the whale meat processed in Norway is now sold as food for dogs, a revelation in stark contrast to the narrative peddled by government leaders at the time that demand for whale products had been increasing.

In an article detailing the discovery via WDC in 2021, Dr Siri Martinsen, a veterinarian at NOAH, Norway’s largest animal protection NGO, said: “Norwegians in general do not want to eat whale meat and I doubt that they would feel happy about whales being killed to feed dogs.”

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