I woke up to this awful news. Freya the walrus, who had been spending the summer frolicking around Europe, and most recently had taken up residence in a Norwegian fjord, has been euthanized by the Norwegian government after they urged the public to stay away from her. The public did not stay away, however, and instead flocked to see the famous walrus, tried to swim with her, and threw things at her. The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said, according to CNN, that "the decision to euthanize the walrus was made based on an overall assessment of the continued threat to human safety." CNN explains further:
"The public has disregarded the current recommendation to keep a clear distance to the walrus," Nadia Jdaini, spokesperson for the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, told CNN in an email.
Previously, the directorate told CNN that it was considering multiple solutions, including relocating Freya out of the fjord. But "the extensive complexity of such an operation made us conclude that this was not a viable option," Bakke-Jensen said in the news release.
This all just makes me ill. Ugh, humans.
