The woman who climbed on the back of a beaked whale last week in the Dutch municipality of Zandvoort has been arrested. She is being interrogated and a report is being drawn up, the police said. Her action was captured on video, the images are currently circulating on the internet. Police are calling on her to stop making threats.
The woman turned himself in to the police yesterday after they launched a call. The reason was a video on the beach.
A dolphin threatened to wash ashore, but a dozen bathers were able to send the animal back to the open sea. At that moment, however, the woman grabbed her moment a few meters away. She held the whale in her arms. She also crossed a leg over it, intending to be carried away.
“Act normal for a while,” the bystanders responded. With success, because she eventually let the animal go.
“This is animal cruelty”
The woman then received many threats. “We understand that this story evokes emotions. However, that should never be a reason to make threats on social media. That too is punishable. So don’t do this,” the police said.
Annemarie van den Berg, the director of the SOS Dolphin Foundation, is stunned. “Why is someone doing this? This is just animal cruelty,” he said. “It’s an animal in distress, you shouldn’t climb on it.”
“All kinds of diseases”
According to Van den Berg, the woman’s action was not only risky for the dolphin, but also for herself. “The animal can carry all kinds of diseases. A dolphin is also strong enough to break her ribs.”
It is still a mystery why the woman wanted to climb on the animal. According to Van den Berg, there is something magical about dolphins, which makes people always want to touch them. “But this just isn’t possible. It’s like seeing a knocked-down dog lying on the road and then lying on it because it’s nice and fluffy.”
“Not yet out of danger”
A total of three beaked whales were observed. SOS Dolphin says that they have not yet been found “luckily”. “That does not mean that the animals are out of the danger zone. If they wash ashore again, they will be doomed,” said a spokeswoman.
The beaked whale is a whale that lives in deep oceans. The animals are used to finding their food at a depth of 2 or 3 kilometers and are therefore not able to cope well in the shallow North Sea. The spokeswoman does not know how the animals ended up there. “They are lost. Maybe because of noise pollution or human influence, maybe they are sick,” it sounds. The organization takes into account that they could be stranded dead or alive today.
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