Euthanasia only answer for exhausted whales

Surviving pilot whales stranded on the coast of Tasmania, Australia, will be euthanised as they cannot be saved, officials have said.

Around 380 whales have already died in Australia’s worst stranding on record, says the BBC.

Rescuers have refloated 70 of the animals and say and there is hope that another 20 can, with help, make it back out to deep waters.

But four surviving whales are too exhausted from their struggles to be saved.

“These are animals we’ve given a chance to, we’ve tried to release them, but they haven’t done well,” Kris Carlyon with the Marine Conservation Project explained.

He said there was no real chance of successfully releasing them again.

“In this case the best, most humane course of action is to euthanise,” he said.

The four whales were  assessed several times by vets before the decision to kill them humanely was taken, “based purely on animal welfare grounds”.