The French authorities said that they decided to end the life of a whale stuck for weeks in the Seine River, after unsuccessful attempts to take it to sea, where it became “very sick.”
Over the weekend, a group of experts worked with sonar techniques to help the killer whale return to its natural habitat in salt water, after it appeared in the Seine River that flows through Paris.
The killer whale, also known as an orca, was seen between the northern coastal city of Le Havre in Normandy and the city of Rouen in the interior, after it was first spotted on May 16.”The group of experts unanimously concluded that the only possible solution was euthanasia of the animal,” local authorities said in a statement.
The group added that “the audio recordings (obtained with sonar techniques) revealed sound calls similar to cries of pain,” noting that the animal appeared to be in a “critical health condition.”
Sources added that it appears that the animal suffers from wormwood, an infection that is increasingly observed among marine mammals and causes them severe pain.