Outrage as baby whale is given ‘deadly poisons’ after being stranded

A baby whale stranded for days on an Oregon beach has been euthanized, sparking heartbreak and outrage from people who say officials didn’t do enough to save him.

The male humpback, nicknamed Hope, was just one to three years old when he became entangled in thick ropes from a crab-fishing pot, likely discarded in the ocean by local fishermen.

The ropes left Hope weakened, making it difficult for him to swim or steer. Experts said he likely beached himself as a last resort, a natural behavior for sick or injured whales seeking shallow water to rest, though it often leads to death.

Wildlife experts spent the past few days attempting to rescue Hope, but said they were forced to euthanize the mammal by lethal injection around 6pm ET Monday night.

As hundreds flocked to the beach in Yachats and fought with authorities to attempt a rescue, many on social media claimed the baby whale was unnecessarily killed before exhausting all options to return him to the ocean.

‘This whale deserved to live, and the effort just wasn’t there from the people who really could make it happen,’ Facebook user Cory Friesen said. ‘They didn’t let people try. Many, many people from all over came together for this one animal,’ Ashlie Nicole Taylor posted.

Taylor claimed that wildlife officials in Oregon told people to leave the beach instead of banding together to push the 20-ton mammal into the water.

However, Charles Nye from OMMSN defended the decision to euthanize the whale, saying they didn’t have the resources or heavy equipment to mount a rescue, such as a helicopter or trucks capable of carrying anything larger than a seal.

‘This could further injure or distress a live animal. Beyond this, moving the whale into deeper water does not guarantee its survival,’ Nye explained in a Facebook post.

Other wildlife activists on social media alleged that officials in Oregon never had any intention of saving the whale and only brought the proper equipment to euthanize the yearling.

‘After doing nothing for 2 days, these lousy ***** ‘experts’ and so-called ‘rescuers’ promptly brought in necropsy equipment,’ marine mammal rescue group Stranded No More posted on X shortly before the whale nicknamed Hope was killed. 

Greyling Shultz Gentry said on Facebook that veterinarians likely sedated the whale using sodium pentobarbital, a fast-acting drug that calms the brain, helps with sleep, surgery prep, and seizure control.

‘Then stopped her heart by injecting it with potassium chloride using a six-foot long needle,’ Gentry added.

‘Huge quantities of these deadly poisons permeated the tissues via the bloodstream prior to cardiac arrest.’

Lisa Ballance from the Marine Mammal Institute explained that once a whale is beached, there’s almost no chance that they’ll survive and successfully return to the ocean.

‘There’s no way to spin this positively. I know the general public is heartbroken,’ Ballance told the Lincoln Chronicle.

Hundreds of people reportedly drove from across Oregon, clogging Highway 101 and overwhelming the beach, after viral posts spread the news of the yearling’s crisis Saturday night. 

Videos posted to social media captured several individuals risking their own safety and attempting to push the whale toward the ocean late at night.

However, some conservation groups also pushed back on the claims that Hope could be saved, adding that locals only endangered their own lives by trying to move the whale.

The conservation nonprofit Oceanic Rescue Center and Awareness (ORCA) posted on X: ‘I understand people want to try to help, but you can get in trouble for touching a whale by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, plus more importantly, you could get crushed by the whale if the waves pushed it landward.’

‘I am all for people trying to better our resource pool, but I do understand that none of what happened was due to negligence or a lack of empathy. That could not be further from the truth,’ Nye added in a post answering local outrage OMMSN received. 

OMMSN and Marine Mammal Institute noted that a last-minute attempt was made to get Hope close enough to the tide for the baby whale to ‘self-rescue,’ but the efforts failed.

Members of ORCA also noted that the whale was completely exhausted and showing signs of physiological distress after being beached for three days, leaving him too weak to try again.