Why bother spending time and money on sick dolphins, whales and sea turtles? This is a question that we are asked from time to time and one that we have asked ourselves as well. Why not just push the stranded animals back out to sea and let Nature take its course? Why not just euthanize them all on the beach? Why put all of this effort into trying to save an animal whose chances of survival are slim? These are the questions that every conscientious person involved in stranding work must ask himself or herself. When there are no state or federal funds available for such work, the individuals who must raise the funds to support such an operation will ask these questions. Likewise, people approached to donate to such an effort have a right to know the answers to these questions.

Although these are all simple, legitimate questions, the answers are somewhat more complex. The first answer comes in the form of another question. Do we have a moral obligation to aid animals that are sick or dying due to the impact of human actions? If our pollution is making them sick, should we not try to alleviate the sickness? If our boat propellers are injuring them, should we not try to heal the injuries? Are we responsible for our actions that affect other species who share this planet with us?

Even if we accept a moral obligation to help the animals that suffer from humankind's behavior, we could just put them all to sleep to end their suffering. The reasons we do not do that are multiple. First of all, we do have the option to euthanize these animals on the beach, and we will do that if we feel there is no hope of rehabilitating the individual. But to know whether there is any chance of rehabilitating them, we must know which ones can be rehabilitated successfully. In essence, we are learning as we go, as there are no set guidelines to follow. We are educating ourselves as to the chances of success with any rehabilitation effort. We are learning which ones cannot be saved and should be euthanized immediately. We will rehabilitate an individual until we feel that it has no chance of survival. We have euthanized several animals in the past two years that we felt had reached that point. We are able to make these decisions earlier in each stranding case. We are developing guidelines that will allow us to make these determinations even earlier, and we hope soon to be able to make these determinations at the beach.

This education also gives us more information about how we can better treat the animals that can be saved. We do not have textbooks available about how to treat all the diseases we have to deal with when we bring a live animal into the Hospital. We are writing the books as we go. The average number of live stranded cetaceans that are released alive is about 5% or less, worldwide. Over the last five years, we have released about 30% of the live stranded cetaceans we have dealt with here at the Dolphin and Whale Hospital. The numbers for the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital are even better. Obviously, we are learning a lot from these rehabilitation efforts.

Beyond these reasons, there is the basic knowledge to be gained about these animals, many species of which are never even touched except in a rehabilitation setting. One of our research goals is to add to the general base of knowledge regarding the animals with which we deal. We seldom have a case that does not lead to a scientific publication or scientific presentation. We are able to learn about species that many cetacean biologists will never even see. This goes for the animals that are found dead on the beach (all are necropsied if in good enough condition) as well as those that strand alive and are kept alive for even a short period of time.

So, the reasons for attempting to save these animals are multiple and, at least to us, add up to a decision that the expense is justified. Research is not cheap, nor is rehabilitation. But what is learned over time forms the foundation of everything we learn in the future. We want our future to have a solid foundation.

Charles A. Manire, DVM
Animal Care Manager and Staff Veterinarian

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