Annual dolphin drive hunts in Japan and the Faroe Islands kill thousands of cetaceans using methods that cause prolonged suffering and have been widely condemned by marine biologists and welfare scientists.
Drive hunts cause extreme distress from the herding phase onward — dolphins are highly social animals and the combination of boat noise, separation, and beaching induces acute fear responses. Killing methods are not instantaneous and cause observable suffering. The take of live animals for aquarium display adds a welfare dimension beyond immediate mortality, condemning those animals to captivity separated from their social groups.