80,000 pounds of whale meat found in ‘affordable’ dog food, Finland officials say

About 80,000 pounds of illegally imported whale meat was found in dog food in Finland, officials said.

The meat — sourced from minke whales, a protected species — was shipped from Norway in 2022 and used to feed Finnish sled dogs, according to a Dec. 30 news release.

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

The food was not widely available on the market, though, as it was manufactured in Norway exclusively for one Finnish importer.

Finnish officials discovered the food after Swedish customs officials tipped them off to a cargo shipment and abnormalities in customs documents.

Since then, five individuals connected to the case have been interviewed, and Finnish prosecutors are considering filing charges.

Minke whales are protected under the CITES Convention, a treaty that grants special safeguards for species threatened by global trade. Additionally, Finnish law explicitly prohibits the import of whale products to Finland.

Found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, minke whales are not considered endangered. However, commercial whaling may have shrunk their populations in certain areas, such as the northeastern North Atlantic, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This is also not the first time whale meat has been used to feed dogs in Scandinavia.

In 2021, several tons of whale meat were shipped to a dog sled tourism company in Norway and used for dog food, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a nonprofit organization.

This story was originally published January 2, 2025 at 11:40 AM with the headline "80,000 pounds of whale meat found in ‘affordable’ dog food, Finland officials say."