posted August 22, 2008 12:28 PM
Hi everyone,
I know I rarely send a post to Heathcliffe's Corner but I had been following the story about Colin as much as possible. I was hoping that Colin would find a surrogate mother, be fed by the people who were there, or even be taken to an aquarium even though I don't know how "normal" it would have been for a humpback whale to be in an aquarium. As upset as I am about this situation - I'm trying to remain calm and keep in mind that Colin is in a better place - maybe with her mom, my Robert - maybe she is surrounded by some good ol' love. RIP Colin. I got in contact with Devine Shipping a little more than 24 hours ago and i wanted to post the response I got from these wonderful people who tried all they could to help Colin out - here is the response I received:
"It’s quite a long story but basically the bureaucrats in the National Parks and Wildlife refused our offer of setting up a feeding system. Unfortunately it was there inaction that allowed Colin’s health to deteriorate where it is at the stage where their “experts” have decided to put her down. We managed to prevent the first covert attempt at killing which meant they couldn’t find him at night, we gave him an extra day. We went looking for him this morning to breach their laws and feed Colin but unfortunately they got to him first and have just put him down. Our court application to prevent the final decision this morning was rejected.
It’s concerning that nothing was attempted and therefore nothing was learnt, the next time this happens we have little to base our actions on, sadly I feel that Colin has died in vain.
Kind Regards
Operations Manager
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Here are two articles about Colin that I retrieved from Adelaide Now.
August 22, 2008 01:45pm
SHARKS have gorged themselves on a whale carcass identified as the likely mother of Colin - the abandoned baby humpback given a lethal injection today.
Wildlife experts will conduct DNA tests on a whale they believe may have been the mother of a lost calf nicknamed Colin, hours after the young whale was euthanased.
It is believed a whale carcass being eaten by sharks near Eden on the NSW South Coast is likely to have been her mother, explaining why the young whale turned up alone and hungry in Pittwater on Sunday.
The development came as National Parks and Wildlife head Sally Barnes revealed Colin - named after a man who tried to rescue the distressed mammal - was actually a female humpback whale calf.
Soon after 8.30am Sydney time, wildlife officers gave the calf two lethal jabs of anaesthetic.
The move came as activists claimed more could have been done to save Colin.
Media were kept away from the scene today as the lethal injection was administered under cover of a tent - but a reporter at the scene saw the body of the calf being loaded on to a trailer for transport by road to Taronga Zoo, where an autopsy will be carried out.
Several groups of people converged on Pittwater this morning to protest against the euthanasia and suggest ways the calf's life might be saved.
A spokesman for the Divine Marine Group said it had organised a legal injunction against the NPWS to prevent Colin being killed, but could not serve it in time.
"We had five minutes and during that time they euthanased poor Colin,'' Captain Alexander John Littingham said on radio.
"That was a scene that we witnessed ... and then they towed the whale behind their National Parks and Wildlife boat. It looked like a scene out of the Antarctic with a Japanese fishing boat.
"It was absolutely disgusting.''
Captain Littingham said the group had wanted to use a force-feeding system with an electronic pump.
Taronga Zoo vets will be looking for clues as to why the whale was separated from its mother .
The decision to put little Colin out of his misery was made at a meeting of NSW Parks and Wildlife Service workers, scientists and representatives of other agencies after the calf's condition took a drastic turn for the worse yesterday.
Rescuers opted not to make another attempt to shepherd the starving whale calf into open water, the NPWS said.
The calf unexpectedly appeared on Sunday in The Basin, inside Sydney's Pittwater, and returned on Tuesday after being towed out to sea.
"The vets who had a look at him were really surprised at how fast he'd gone downhill," NPWS spokesman John Dengate said last night.
"He's having difficulties breathing and his flippers were at an unnatural angle.
"Their advice to us was 'he's not going to last much longer, he's suffering, and you should take action'."
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August 22, 2008 11:45am
WILDLIFE authorities have defended the way an orphaned whale calf was put down today, following criticism that it suffered before dying.
The injured baby humpback, affectionately called Colin - but which has now been identified as a female - was put down by veterinarians today after being abandoned in waters north of Sydney earlier this week.
Cherie Curchod said she saw the whale thrashing around near a jetty below her home after it was given more than six injections.
Ms Curchod said the whale was then tied up and dragged across the bay at Bonnie Doon, to The Basin at Pittwater before it "actively started trying to get away".
"Then they dragged it to a closed tent and all the while they dragged it, it was flapping it's tail, blowing out of it's head and moving and trying to get away," she told AAP.
"It was so upsetting because euthanasia is meant to be an easy death and that whale did not have an easy death at all."
National Parks and Wildlife Services spokesman John Dengate said the whale's death was the "best possible result" in the circumstances.
"That was the best way it could have been done," he told reporters.
"You put the animal out of its misery."
He said the calf had been treated with dignity and respect by leading veterinarians but the process of putting down a large mammal was "distressing and harrowing".
"To an untrained person, it might not look like the most fantastic thing, but you can't get a better result than that," he said.
NPWS director Sally Barnes said: "I was there, it was done with as little stress as possible to the animal.
"The animal when they first got it and sedated it was very quiet, very still. We brought it onto the beach where it was euthanased by the vets."
Representatives from both the RSPCA and the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) said they were satisfied with the way the euthanasia had been carried out.
ORRCA spokeswoman Shona Lorigan said the response from authorities over the past five days had been "a very measured, responsible approach to try to save it".
She said criticism of the response time was unfounded and a brash, sudden approach would not have been appropriate.
"All our experience that ORRCA has with cetaceans in this situation is that they very easily get stressed and a very quick, don't think about it response is not the way to go," she said.
"You need to gather your information, talk to as many people as you can and that's exactly what National Parks did."
Other residents said the injured whale could not be helped.
Jim Macken said while many whales visited his local bay and left happily, this one had unfortunately suffered a sad end.
"They couldn't have done anything more for it," Mr Macken said.
"If the National Parks people could possibly have done something for it, they would have."
The NPWS has asked the community for suggestions to erect a memorial at The Basin in honour of the whale.
"All our experience that ORRCA has with cetaceans in this situation is that they very easily get stressed and a very quick, don't think about it response is not the way to go," she said.
"You need to gather your information, talk to as many people as you can and that's exactly what National Parks did."
Other residents said the injured whale could not be helped.
Jim Macken said while many whales visited his local bay and left happily, this one had unfortunately suffered a sad end.
"They couldn't have done anything more for it," Mr Macken said.
"If the National Parks people could possibly have done something for it, they would have."
The NPWS has asked the community for suggestions to erect a memorial at The Basin in honour of the whale.
Lindaland
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posted August 22, 2008 12:28 PM
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