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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| A case for cetacean CSI |
| 2010-01-08 |
| WILDLIFE officers have appealed to the public for information about a dolphin that was slashed across the throat and left on the lawn of a WA house. The dolphin was dumped under a tree of a property about 500m from the water at Bremer Beach on WA's south coast. A wildlife officer from the Department of Environment and Conservation's Nature Protection Branch in Albany will travel to Bremer Bay today to investigate the incident, question locals and examine the carcass. "Calling all cars, calling all cars, be on the lookout for a dolphin-killer, large, black and white, answers to 'Shamu'. That is all." Acting chief wildlife officer Kevin Morrison said it was not clear whether the dolphin had been hurt before or after its death. "The photos provided to us indicate that someone inflicted quite deep serious wounds to the throat of the dolphin, but it's not possible to say conclusively if it was while the animal was still alive, or post mortem," Mr Morrison said. "Whatcha think, Dr. Quincy?" "I dunno, Sam, but there's salt water in the lungs." "It's a dolphin, Quince, what did you expect?" "It could have been determined only if we'd been able to access the carcass of the animal while it was still fresh and a proper forensic done. "Next time, Sam, stick it in the freezer til I get here!" "Unfortunately now, the only way we'd be able to determine whether the animal was killed or the injury inflicted post-mortem is if we get information from members of the public. "We're relying heavily on information from the public in order to get a result." "It's a Sicilian message. It means Flipper sleeps with the mammals." Mr Morrison said it was believed the animal was a striped dolphin, but more would be known when the wildlife officer examined the carcass tomorrow. The officer would be liaising with police from Ongerup investigating the disturbing incident. "We're concerned whenever there is evidence of any animal being killed unnecessarily or where injuries have been cruelly inflicted," Mr Morrison said. "We don't know in this case for sure if the dolphin was killed and the injuries were cruelly inflicted or if it was found dead and someone caused injury to it afterwards." "It appears the case, though, that the injury is not the sort of injury that a dolphin would sustain in the wild. It looks like a straight slit up the throat and it's not likely that a dolphin could sustain that sort of injury in the natural environment." |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #9 Nothing fishy about it, though. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-01-08 22:24 |
| #8 Another porpoise-less murder... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-01-08 22:16 |
| #7 Thank you for the correction, Steve. It's been a while. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-08 21:42 |
| #6 A meter is about a yard, so 500 meters is about 1500 feet. Let's call it 3/10s of a mile. But you are right - that is a long stroll on little vestigial legs. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-01-08 13:15 |
| #5 dolphins have developed the one of only lasting a few seconds But very high power, I understand. "It's concentrated!" *shudder* 500 m is more than half a mile from the water, unless I confused numerator and denominator. That's quite a distance for intrapod jealousy. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-08 11:34 |
| #4 Not that there's anything wrong with that...... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-01-08 09:32 |
| #3 The oft-told tale of a whale biologist who comes home to his trailer, to find his wife in bed with a dolphin In the swimming pool would be a better idea. Anyway she is going to be disappointed since between other adaptations to living in water dolphins have developed the one of only lasting a few seconds |
| Posted by: JFM 2010-01-08 09:31 |
| #2 Given the dolphins, how can it be put gently, perverse sexual proclivities, with just about anything, and even in groups, I suspect jealousy as the motive. The oft-told tale of a whale biologist who comes home to his trailer, to find his wife in bed with a dolphin. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-01-08 09:06 |
| #1 "Whatcha think, Dr. Quincy?" "I dunno, Sam, but there's salt water in the lungs." "It's a dolphin, Quince, what did you expect?" I would expect no salt water since dolphins like humans have no water in the lungs unless they drwon. |
| Posted by: JFM 2010-01-08 08:44 |