Updates on Freya the walrus

More online articles about the killing of Freya the walrus, which has more or less been unilaterally condemned internationally. There are many voices in Norway who oppose it also. Additionally, as my friend Jean pointed out, this killing was not euthanasia, which is normally defined as mercy killing. This was no mercy killing, it was a premeditated killing (she was shot) of a wild animal that certainly did not deserve to die at the hands of callous and cruel humans. She was killed because she was 'perceived' as a threat to human life, not because she actually was one. 

Freya, Hvalrossen Freya | Europeiske dyrevernere raser etter Freya-avliving: – Vi kan ikke bare drepe alle som er til bry for oss (nettavisen.no)

Dutch marine experts condemn killing of walrus Freya - DutchNews.nl

Norway PM Defends Walrus Killing Amid Global Outrage - Life in Norway

Did Freya need to die? Why euthanizing its celebrity walrus was ‘Norway in a nutshell’ (nbcnews.com)

Backlash to killing of Freya the walrus who made home on Shetland | The Scotsman

Photographer Who Befriended Freya the Walrus Outraged at Her Slaying | PetaPixel

Freya the walrus: Photographer who befriended animal condemns her ‘murder’ by Oslo authorities in Norway | The Independent

Freya, a Famous Walrus, Is Killed and Norwegians Are Divided - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

And a short info article about walruses:

Walrus - WWF Arctic (arcticwwf.org)

The killing of Freya

Much has been written about the murder of Freya, the young female walrus who made the fatal mistake of entering Norwegian waters. It has been uplifting to read that many Norwegians absolutely do not support the needless and cruel shooting of an animal that brought joy to so many. The authorities who made the decision to shoot her are callous and should be held accountable. But they won't be. Because this is Norway anno 2022, where no one is held accountable for anything they do. I saw and experienced that often in my former workplace. If you try to get the name of a person 'responsible' for a particular policy, action, or statement, you won't get it. You'll get the names of people in the department that made the decision, yes, but you'll never get to know who actually made the decision to do this or that, in this case, to kill Freya. This is done to 'protect' the person who made the decision from hate mail, threats, and so on. Understandable? Unfortunately, yes, because in our day and age there are so many nutcases that walk the streets looking for someone on whom they can vent their aggression and craziness. But it never had to come to the point of killing Freya, and someone should be held responsible. There were so many other alternatives available, and the authorities settled on the easiest one--pick up a gun and kill the animal(s) causing the problem. That is often the alternative that is chosen in Norway. It is not a nation that opts to learn how to coexist peacefully with wildlife. 

My husband calls me 'dyrenes venn', which translated to English means 'friend of the animals'. He says it affectionately when I tell him about the bumblebees that died in the garden flowers, or the cat that takes a nap in my greenhouse, or the birds that take a communal bath in the birdbath. He knows that my interests lie in preserving life of all kinds to the best of my ability. I am not their literal friend, rather a protector of some sort. I sometimes feel like I am channeling my mother, because she used to behave the same way. That doesn't mean that I am able to prevent them being killed all of the time. I do step on (and kill) ants and other insects, but I don't do it intentionally. Every time I see an ant on a city sidewalk scurrying across the pavement, I step around it because I know that it's on its way home to the anthill after a busy day. Not so different from us humans. My garden has revealed the connection to all life that exists, no matter how small and insignificant, from the tiny ants to the larger brown slugs (which the garden board would like us to kill but which I cannot bring myself to do any longer), to the large crows and magpies that frequent the garden. I have a particular fondness for the light brown spiders that scurry around on the greenhouse floor when I disturb them in my hunt for a rake or other tool. They are harmless, more afraid of me than I ever could be of them (I'm not afraid of them). My husband likes spiders as well; he does not kill them and actually welcomes them in his boat because they do the job they were put here on earth to do and don't bother anyone. Even yellow jackets, as annoying as they are, have a job to do. I'm not always sure what it is, but I am not interested in killing them for no reason. And that is the crux of the matter--killing any living thing for no reason is just plain wrong. Doing so places you in the realm of the psychopaths. 

Reverence for life. I have that reverence and perhaps have always had it, but it is full-on now, I think because I am getting older. Our lives and the lives around us--human and animal alike--are short. It makes no sense to end lives needlessly. It's just cruel and shows that we lack empathy for living beings of all kinds. In that respect, I am beginning to consider the use of animals for food. We still eat meat, but much less than we used to, because I see that animals suffer at our hands in the meat industry. I saw that last summer when we stayed at a historic hotel that also raised chickens 'humanely', as the owners proclaimed. I didn't think the conditions for the little chicks were so humane; thousands of them were packed into a huge sunless garage with small windows, and fed and watered there. They never roamed outdoors, never felt the sun on their bodies, never foraged for insects and food on their own. I thought that if this was humane treatment, what does inhumane treatment look like? Perhaps I don't want to know. 

I want to live in a world that doesn't kill beings like Freya, who seemed to like being around humans. Whenever we establish any sort of bond with animals, birds, and insects, we are responsible for how we treat them. That means that we should not pursue those bonds if we are not willing to step up to the plate to protect the beings in question. It means that we don't encourage dangerous wildlife to become human-friendly. It means that we do not kill them unless our lives are actually threatened by them in a one-on-one confrontation as sometimes happens. I am not advocating for the anthropomorphization of animals (attributing human characteristics or behavior to an animal). I am simply saying that learning to coexist with them is the best policy. Let them go about their business as we go about ours. 

Freya's needless death, her murder, has been news now for the past few days. The media will move on from her and her death will be forgotten or relegated to the back burner in the relentless quest for more important stories. But I will not forget her, nor will I forget how Norway treated her. The way a country treats animals has a lot to say about the country. The lack of empathy for Freya tells me all I need to know. 

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I'm adding a postscript to this article, an update as to what the authorities have done with the body of Freya. They transported her body from Sandvika harbor to Ås, where the veterinary institute on the Ås university campus autopsied her. The distance from Sandvika to Ås is about 26 miles. God knows when and how they transported her; no one even knows at what time they shot her. Transport probably happened at night when no one was around to protest. That would be appropriately cowardly for these types of authorities. So to be completely clear: they had the money to move her dead body 26 miles so that she could be autopsied, but not the money to sedate her and to move her further out to sea, which probably would have cost far less. They took the easy way out as I wrote in my previous post about Freya. I hope their consciences plague them for the rest of their lives. 

Not one of Norway's finer moments--rest in peace, Freya

Image taken from https://images.app.goo.gl/yUjWbQmKC8owbqVH7

The Oslo fjord has had an unusual visitor since June, a young female walrus that was given the name Freya. The name Freya means 'the Norse goddess of love and beauty'. Unfortunately for the walrus Freya, there was no love shown for her when authorities ended her life (shot her) a day ago because it was easier for them to do that than to sedate her and move her to a safe place, away from the gawking humans who endangered her life, not the other way around. But the reasons given for euthanizing her were that she posed a threat to people, those wonderful human beings who gathered to watch her swim around and sunbathe on boats in different Oslo harbors, who gawked at her and did not leave her alone. Who swam in the water in the vicinity of where she was. Who harassed her. Idiots. She seemed to like being here and didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave. But she would have left eventually. Of course she would have.

Atlantic walruses, of which Freya was one, make their home in the icy waters around Norway, Greenland, Canada, and Russia. Freya had apparently been on a bit of a world tour, visiting the UK, Scotland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Photographers posted many photos of her over the past months. She chose to spend part of the summer in Norway. Norway shot her. Norway killed her. No other country ever considered that possibility. Norway did. Even the prime minister supported the decision to kill her. Shame on Norway. Shame on this country. Shame, shame, shame. 

What this country did to Freya breaks my heart, and has changed my view of Norway for good. I don't trust the authorities anymore to make good decisions concerning wildlife of any kind. After all, this is a nation that still kills whales and like Japan, defends the practice. This is a country that shoots first whenever wildlife encroach on human territories; the solution is always to shoot them (wolves, for example) and to show the carcasses of the dead wolves on television. I've always wondered why the media allow that. Why do we need to see the bodies of dead animals? To convince ourselves that they are really dead? The authorities also killed an entire rabbit population on the island of Gressholmen in 2004 (Alle kaninene kan bli skutt (aftenposten.no); the reason given was that they were destroying the native vegetation. But the rabbits had been there for years and the vegetation grew back every year, as native vegetation usually does. Seeing the rabbits was part of the attraction of visiting the island. The authorities never listened to other alternatives. They always know best, these bureaucrats. They are arrogant and callous. 

Other countries take different approaches to such visitors. San Francisco in California allowed Pier 39 to become a home for sea lions when it was clear that they were using it to camp out. Food (fish) was plentiful and the marina area was protected. It became a tourist attraction, yes, but at a distance. You are not allowed to walk among the seals, and that wouldn't be a good idea anyway. The sea lions live there but also migrate to the Channel Islands during the summer months for breeding season. I remember seeing them when we lived in the city in 1993; it didn't take a doctoral degree to understand that one should stay a safe distance from them. Most people seemed to respect that. The city didn't consider shooting them as far as I know.  

I understand protecting yourself and defending yourself if confronted with an aggressive and dangerous wild animal. Freya was neither; she was a wild animal, yes, but she did not go after human beings. The opposite was true; the human beings hounded her. She paid for their idiocy with her life. We have not learned to coexist peacefully with wildlife. We say we want wildlife around us, but we don't, not really. It's a lie we tell ourselves. The death of Freya merely highlights that. 

The international reactions to Freya's death have not been positive for Norway. I'm glad to see that. You are free to disagree with me about this story; it won't change my feelings one iota. Here are some links to media articles about Freya's death: 

Walrus that attracted crowds in Oslo fjord euthanised: officials (france24.com)

Freya, the 1,300-pound walrus sinking boats in Norway, euthanized - CNN

Walrus Freya who became attraction in Norway's Oslo Fjord put down - BBC News

Walrus named Freya that drew crowds in Oslo euthanized by Norwegian authorities - CBS News

Norway Kills Freya, a 1,300-Pound Walrus Who Delighted Onlookers - The New York Times (nytimes.com)