Colin the whale and ethics

[Fiona74]

Apparently he has now been euthanased.

 

[Rocky]

So Colin has done a runner, the "experts" can't locate him, they continue the search and will carry on at first light..

And there's an uproar about Japanese whaling? They are hunting Colin to euthanize him, please point out how that is different..

Let nature take its course, why are humankind so arrogant that they insist on "fixing" problems that are well and truly beyond their comprehension?

If they want to find him, Send in a Japanese "expert". Problem Solved. Mind you.. when they rest of the team catch up, he may be half eaten..

 

[jessb]

Do humans euthanize severely deformed children? Do they "try" to help for 5 days and realising their incompetence choose to end their suffering?

In many cases if doctors can't help a child (or adult for that matter) then yes, they will absolutely remove a feeding tube, provide pain relief and allow them to die painlessly and without dragging it out, causing unnecessary suffering. And that is just in a developed country - deformed or disabled children throughout the world are frequently left to die either due to superstition and lack of education or inadequate medical facilities.

And to anyone who is suggesting that the millions it would have cost to rear this animal would be well spent, note that a research program to study rare (or even common) childhood diseases can be funded for several years for a million dollars. We are talking about hundreds or thousands of human children lives which could be saved or improved over one sick abandoned animal. Put it into perspective please.

Note that IF something could be done to give this whale a good chance, then it would have been done. There was simply not the possibility of saving this whale, so the kindest way to alleviate his suffering was to euthanase him. Note the euthanasia is illegal in Australia for humans, otherwise it would certainly happen more often in comparable situations.

NB Joseph, the "handful of experts" you are talking about include NPWS, ORCCA, marine biologists and the RSPCA . They are hardly a bunch of armchair experts (unlike most of the people posting on these forums) If these people believe there is no hope for the whale, then what makes you and the bunch of idiots who keep suggesting to pop a teat on the bottom of a boat and pump out a krill milkshake, are more qualified to make that decision?

I would be very interested to see how much all the bleeding hearts who demanded that the whale be saved have donated to ORCCA or RSPCA over the last 5 years. Next to nothing I can guarantee.

 

[slim6y]

Doctors helped this fellow (spending probably millions)

Ironically I linked to this story (on news.com) from reading about the euthanised Collin... He's dead now...

So my idea of a blow up whale filled with milk obviously went to waste...

Ok - my serious spin on this - The animal probably shouldn't have human interference, but that is what makes us so different to the rest of the world as humans - we actually have this capacity.

People like Bill Gates - he has several hundred billion dollars - I bet he could have saved the whale... It's a little sad though to think that enough money would solve almost any problem in the world...

Anyhow... We're different as we have our family with us for 15 - 20 years (sometimes longer) - we're born and we can't walk... Not like four legged animals... We can't fend for ourselves at all for many years.

If we abandoned a child - i would hope our pack instinct would be to care for it - which it is. But I will be interested to read what research comes from Collin and his abandonment.

RIP Collin.

Oh by the way... another koala got bashed and killed and had one of its legs removed.

 

[gillsy]

Finally the right thing was done.

It should of been put down long before now, the poor thing was suffering all week.

 

[jessb]

People like Bill Gates - he has several hundred billion dollars - I bet he could have saved the whale... It's a little sad though to think that enough money would solve almost any problem in the world...

To be fair, he does spend billions of dollars on efforts to eradicate AIDS and malaria in the developing world - he probably thinks saving millions of human lives is a wee bit more important than saving a single whale...

 

[gillsy]

To be fair, he does spend billions of dollars on efforts to eradicate AIDS and malaria in the developing world - he probably thinks saving millions of human lives is a wee bit more important than saving a single whale...

Exactly, the ignorance of people believe one whale is worth saving more than a whole species.

People blaming politicians, it was the vets that made the educated decision.

People call them murderers are not worth even listening to, they haven't spent their whole lives looking after these animals helping to save and protect... I'm sure they didn't make an easy decision to euthanise it.

People need to be realists.

I would love to have it saved, but come on 2 hour feedings with up to 30 people holding a 1 tone + animal everytime lives in danger for 12 months. It would be 10 tonnes by the end of the time.

It wasn't worth the stress of both the people and the animal.

 

[Trouble]

I just found this link: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24222707-661,00.html
Kinnda tells everyone that even the environment protective group said it was best to put the boy to sleep
There was no possible way to keep up the feeding.

R.I.P Colin... No more suffering

 

[Chris1]

i guess i'm relieved hes been put down,...it was so sad watching the poor guy cruise around cutting himself up on boats that werent his mum.

as others have said even if he survived the first 12 months being fed he would have missed out of the lessons necessary to live anyway,...

 

[slim6y]

A young fellow was walking along the beach one day... He was astounded to see millions of starfish all washed up on the shore. He couldn't believe his eyes. They must have been washed up there after the severe storm the bay had had the night before.

There were just millions of them everywhere.

As the young man progressed down the beach he saw another man picking up the starfish and throwing them back one by one. The beach was so full of starfish, it was as far as the eye could see.

The young man went up to this fellow throwing the starfish in the water and said:

"Do you really think you can save them all?"

The man answered:

"No, but I saved that one."

 

[Jewly]

I hope all involved in this business feel ashamed of themselves. If they couldn't be bothered trying to help it, then why on earth wait so long to put the poor little guy out of his misery.

All their reasons for not helping it were just poor excuses cause all it would have taken was money to save the poor thing. Maybe Seaworld and the tourism companies that profit from these animals each year could have come forward with some donations to try and help save it.

 

[Dipcdame]

What's to say that IF this poor creature WAS saved? Grew to a feasible size and was set free, after multi-millions of dollars spent on it,. that it wouldn't be harpooned the very next day by the Japanese???? Now THAT would be a bummer!!!!!!!

My heart weeps for Colin, and his plight and suffering, wishing that he would survive, but the head is saying that the practical thing would be to either leave nature to take it's course, or end it's suffering and euthanaise it, but then, we only feel strongly about this because we actually KNOW about it, and some bright spark chose to give him a name (big mistake!) so that people now feel they know him, and see him as a "pet" or something. This is an occurrence that takes place with many babies every year, they all wallow around for however long it takes, till it's ultimate demise eventually comes about. Some argue yes, BUT, we do know about this one, we only know about it because of the media....................... otherwise, we would be as blissfully ignorant as if it were a thousand miles out to sea!! I hate to see anything suffer, but it's nature, it happens!

 

[Joseph]

Someone here said Nature is harsh but fair, leave it to die, (regarding the abandoned whale calf). Perhaps this same attitude should be adopted for the human race also. Just a theory.

 

[Sdaji]

A baby bird was rejected from its nest in my back yard last night. I named her Suzy but I don't have the time or money to take care of her. Does anyone want to help?

There's a hundred baby spiders in a web on my window sill, they just hatched. Almost all will die. Does anyone want to adopt them?

There's about a zillion baby spiders in your own house which die every year, not to mention about a thousands, maybe millions of times more baby reptiles than there are humans in Australia which die in the wild in our country every year. Not to mention the mammals, fish, insects, frogs... aren't you going to do something about it? You're all inhuman! Why is nothing being done? Why does suffering continue?

 

[Sdaji]

Someone here said Nature is harsh but fair, leave it to die, (regarding the abandoned whale calf). Perhaps this same attitude should be adopted for the human race also. Just a theory.

Isn't that what happens? Whales generally do what they can to look after their pod, but if one is left behind it dies. People generally look after their families, but sometimes this can't or doesn't happen for some reason, and the aliens don't come down to look after us either. If no human helps an abandoned human baby, it's almost certainly not going to live. Humans help more animals of other species than any other species does.

 

[Brother]

Just think if we forget about the human race altogether we could use all the money we are curently wasting on humans to save all the animals in the world.

Just think of it this way lets say that the money was found do you think that it should go to save one whale or into research to save the species?

Also the references to children. Lets say by the majic of a higher being that you could sacrafice the life of even one child (let alone millions) to save this guys life would anyone on here make that choice? Cause that is really what the issue is here.

I feel bad for the whale but thats life.

 

[gillsy]

Again I agree with Sdaji, this is getting sad.

 

[Sdaji]

Just think if we forget about the human race altogether we could use all the money we are curently wasting on humans to save all the animals in the world.

Just think of it this way lets say that the money was found do you think that it should go to save one whale or into research to save the species?

Also the references to children. Lets say by the majic of a higher being that you could sacrafice the life of even one child (let alone millions) to save this guys life would anyone on here make that choice? Cause that is really what the issue is here.

I feel bad for the whale but thats life.

Of course, if anyone had to look into a starving child's eyes and say "I'm sorry, but we're not going to feed you, we're going to let you starve to death because we want to feed a whale which is going to die anyway" they wouldn't be able to. Can anyone honestly tell me they could do that? Imagine having to do that to thousands of children, all for one whale which was going to die anyway! Yet somehow, people who think the whale should be left to nature are accused of being heartless.

People are getting upset because they say "One animal's life is of unmeasurable value" or something similar, yet they'll turn around and enjoy their lamb chops for dinner. Poor little lamby! I hope you feel ashamed of yourselves!

 

[Sdaji]

Again I agree with Sdaji, this is getting sad.

Cry me a river or get over me :lol: