December 14, 2012 – A humpback whale that was stranded on a sandbank near the island of Texel, the Netherlands, on Wednesday, has been murdered by two doctors from the dolphinarium of the Dutch city of Harderwijk. The reason: the whale’s skeleton was already sold to a nature museum.

On Friday night a team of whale rescuers supported by citizen volunteers arrived at the Razende Bol (“Raging Ball”), a sandbank that covers an area of around five km², but they were stopped from rescuing the animal by authorities. At 7:30PM a lethal injection was given to the 12-metre long and 25 tonne heavy mammal, named Johannes by the Dutch. Newspaper Telegraaf subsequently confirmed the death of the whale that earlier managed to free itself from the sandbank but returned after an hour. Continue reading →