Whale Put Down After Rescue Attempts Fail
Volunteers tried four times to get the whale to move to deeper water
NBCPhiladelphia
Despite repeated attempts, volunteers were not able to get the whale to stay off shore.
Animal officials have put a 22-foot beached whale in Lewes, Del., out of its alleged misery.
Nearly 20 volunteers came out during four attempts to get the female whale to move to deeper water on Saturday at Cape Henlopen
State Park, but they were unsuccessful.
A veterinarian and whale expert decided to euthanize the seven-ton Minke whale because they said she was too weak to
survive.
Suzanne Thurman is executive director of the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute in Lewes. Thurman says Minke whales are common in the region and will venture into bays.
Park Superintendent Pat Cooper says it's the first incident of a live whale stranded at the Cape in more than a decade.
A baby minke whale that lost its way in a small Brooklyn bay in New York in 2007 died after two days of swimming aimlessly. MSNBC reported. Experts had hoped it would find its way back out to New York harbor, but things took a bad turn when the whale swimming patterns changed.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
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