Dutch Whale Denied Freedom; Must Go to Spanish Amusement Park

Unfortunate, but the court decided she would not survive being returned to the wild.

Here's an excerpt from the online Boston Globe...

Morgan, a 4-year-old killer whale, has lost her bid for freedom

Agriculture Secretary Henk Bleker ruled Wednesday that the orca, rescued last year ailing and emaciated from the Wadden Sea off the northern Dutch coast, should be transferred to an amusement park on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

A Dutch court had suspended the government's export permit after an animal rights coalition presented a plan to release her to the wild in stages. A judge ordered the coalition, the Agriculture Ministry and the Harderwijk Dolphinarium, which put her ondisplay after nursing her back to health, to review the scientific evidence and work out a solution.

Bleker said after hearing arguments from both sides that Morgan's chances of survival were too slim if she were freed.

"This feels like a defeat because an animal like this really belongs in the sea and not a zoo," Bleker said in a statement. "Morgan belongs in the wild, but not at all costs."

More Info on Humane Society University

I came across this article in Inside Higher Ed.

Activists Continue to Target UC Animal Researchers

California recently passed a law protecting animal researchers from animal activists. In the short term at least, it's not working.

The communiqués read, in part:
We were inspired by the recent passage of the 2296 bill and the raid of an anarchist infoshop in Oakland. As the vivisectors revel in their false safety, know this. This law changes NOTHING. We are still here and we intend to act.

We threw stones through windows at Ralph Freeman's Vine Street home, breaking two. Frederic Theunissen's car was scratched up with a hammer. This same hammer was used to smash a large window on his home in the middle of the night. Ralph Freeman has killed cats and kittens in his laboratory at UC Berkeley with no benefit for humans for over twenty years. Frederic Theunissen is responsible for the torture of birds in his laboratory. These animals are denied movement and cut open for his insane, unscientific studies.

All the vivisectors and anyone assisting in this sadism at UC Berkeley (researchers, post-docs) shall consider themselves an appropriate target. And remember, cameras and motion lights have done nothing for Theunissen and Freeman. Justice's hammer falls again and again until it ends when the price is a helpless animals life, -----Feminists for Animal Liberation

Organization Conducts the Good Kind of Research

National Council on Pet Population Policy and Study does some really interesting work. Here's some of their past publications...

* Understanding Animal Companion Surplus in the United States: Relinquishment of Nonadoptables to Animal Shelters for Euthanasia. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 4(4), 237-248. 2001, Phil Kass.

* Characteristics of Shelter-Relinquished Animals and Their Owners Compared With Animals and Their Owners in U.S. Pet-Owning Households. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 3(3), 179-201. 2000, John C. New, Jr.

* Behavioral Reasons for Relinquishment of Dogs and Cats to 12 Shelters. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 3(2), 93-106. 2000, Mo D. Salman.

* Moving: Characteristics of Dogs and Cats and Those Relinquishing Them to 12 U.S. Animal Shelters. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 2(2), 83-86. 1999, John C. New, Jr.

Currently, they are conducting studies on the population dynamics of free-roaming cats and shelter indices that also reflect community health.

Interesting stuff!

Photo by Murfomurf.