The coverage over at Newsday (subscription only) makes the beached whale euthanization sound like a murder mystery! They report, "Three shots rang out on the East Hampton beach Friday where a humpback whale juvenile has been stranded since Tuesday, but it was not clear if the whale had been shot or what it may have been shot with."
While they go on to say the whale is still alive, the NY Post reports it was successfully euthanized after the Riverhead Foundation's Charles Bowman shot several darts into it, and that it died sometime overnight. But, but... the same organization's Kim Durham told Newsday this morning that "the animal is still alive"! She goes on to say that reports of it having died already are not true.
This was the second attempt to euthanize the baby whale, who was discovered on the beach Tuesday morning. Durham calls the euthanization process a "work in progress," making note of concerns for human safety. Once the whale is put out of its misery, the next step will be to perform a necropsy so they can determine what made it sick.
