Chicago Tribune: Shedd Aquarium ‘Did All It Could’ to Save Rescued Belugas

The newspaper’s editorial board says Shedd should be recognized for stepping into an emergency at Marineland, arguing that the deaths of rescued belugas should not obscure the circumstances that made the rescue necessary.

CHICAGO. As veterinarians continue working to understand the deaths of several beluga whales rescued from Marineland in Canada, the Chicago Tribune editorial board has weighed in with a forceful defense of the people who tried to save them.

In an editorial published Sept. 24, the newspaper argued that Shedd Aquarium should not suffer reputational damage for participating in an emergency rescue of animals facing an increasingly desperate situation at Marineland. The board described Shedd’s decision to accept 10 belugas as an altruistic response by a responsible institution confronting a crisis it did not create. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

The editorial comes as new medical findings are beginning to provide a clearer picture of the health problems some of the whales were already facing before they arrived in Chicago. Preliminary examinations of two rescued whales that died at Shedd, Peekachu and Rain, have found chronic gastrointestinal disease that veterinarians believe had been developing for months or potentially years. Veterinarians also found bird feathers, sticks and large porous rocks in Peekachu’s stomach and flecks of material believed to possibly be paint in Rain’s stomach.

For the Tribune editorial board, the larger context is essential to understanding what happened. These were not routine animal transfers between healthy, functioning facilities. Marineland had closed to the public, its property was headed toward redevelopment and 30 belugas still needed somewhere to go. Without new homes, the whales faced the possibility of euthanasia. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

“A Real-World Crisis”

The rescue eventually brought together accredited aquariums in the United States and Europe. Shedd accepted 10 belugas, while other animals were relocated to SeaWorld San Antonio, SeaWorld San Diego, Georgia Aquarium and Oceanogràfic in Valencia, Spain. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

The operation was enormous. Teams had to move animals weighing thousands of pounds from Marineland, load them into specialized transport containers, move them by truck and cargo aircraft and maintain continuous veterinary supervision before introducing them to their new homes.

Shedd received Acadia, Osiris, Sierra and Lillooet in July, followed by Caspian, Peekachu, Secord and Rain in August. The final two animals arrived at Shedd at the beginning of September. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

Three of the rescued Shedd whales have since died. Another beluga, Beethoven, also died during the same period, although he was a longtime Shedd resident and was not part of the Marineland rescue.

Those deaths have brought intense attention to Shedd at the same time veterinarians are learning more about the condition of the animals that arrived from Canada. The Tribune editorial board argues that the deaths should be viewed in the context of the emergency that preceded them and the medical problems the whales may have carried out of Marineland.

“All of that said, the Shedd here was trying to save whales in a real-world crisis not of its own making,” the board wrote. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

The Medical Evidence Is Beginning to Fill in the Picture

The Tribune editorial arrives as preliminary pathology findings provide important new information about the rescued whales.

Shedd veterinarians found significant chronic gastrointestinal disease in Peekachu and severe chronic gastrointestinal disease in Rain. Based on changes to their tissues and the types of immune cells involved, veterinarians believe those illnesses had existed for an extended period before the animals arrived in Chicago.

The foreign material found in their stomachs has raised additional questions. Shedd has said the rocks, sticks and feathers found inside Peekachu could not have been ingested at its facility. Veterinarians have not determined how the material got there or whether conditions at Marineland contributed to the whales’ illnesses, and Shedd has said the debris itself is not believed to have directly caused their deaths.

Those distinctions are important. There is still much veterinarians do not know about the individual deaths. But there is increasing evidence that rescuers were accepting responsibility for animals with significant existing medical challenges.

The Tribune editorial board reaches a similar conclusion from the broader circumstances, arguing that the condition of the whales before their arrival in Chicago cannot be separated from what happened afterward. The board wrote that conditions at Marineland had caused “lasting damage” to the animals and rejected the idea that Shedd should be blamed for attempting to save them. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

The People Behind the Rescue

The editorial also highlights a part of the story that can easily disappear amid medical reports and arguments over the whales’ deaths: the people caring for them.

Transporting 30 belugas required veterinarians, animal-care specialists, transport crews and support staff to work around the clock across multiple institutions and countries. At Shedd, staff members worked through the night as whales arrived from Canada and then began the complicated process of helping each animal acclimate to a new environment.

Those same people were there when some of the whales began getting sick.

The Tribune noted that the emotional impact of the deaths on the people involved in the rescue has received relatively little attention. The board said its experience with Shedd employees left it convinced that the people caring for the animals were motivated by their concern for the whales. (⁠Chicago Tribune)

That human element is worth remembering. Animal-care teams can spend years building relationships with individual animals. In the case of the Marineland belugas, Shedd’s teams took responsibility for animals they had only recently met, knowing from the beginning that some could arrive with medical problems that would take time to understand.

For Peekachu, Rain and Osiris, that time proved painfully short.

The Rescue Is Still Underway

The deaths of rescued animals are heartbreaking. They also do not erase the reason the rescue happened.

Thirty belugas were left at a shuttered facility whose property was being prepared for redevelopment. Their future was uncertain, and euthanasia had become a possibility if new homes could not be found. Accredited aquariums had the expertise, facilities and personnel necessary to respond, and they did.

The Tribune’s editorial is significant because it places the recent deaths back within those circumstances. Shedd did not create the crisis at Marineland. Its veterinarians could not reverse years of an animal’s medical history simply by getting that animal safely to Chicago. What the aquarium could do was step forward when the whales needed somewhere to go and give them professional veterinary care and another chance.

The medical work now underway may eventually tell us much more about what Peekachu, Rain, Osiris and the surviving whales experienced before they were rescued. Each examination gives veterinarians more information that can be used to care for the animals that remain.

For Shedd and the other institutions that opened their doors, that work continues.

The Tribune editorial board’s conclusion is a simple one: the deaths should not obscure the attempt to save the whales.

The people at Shedd stepped into an emergency they didn’t create because animals needed help. Some of those animals arrived carrying serious medical problems that are only now becoming fully visible. The outcome for every whale was never guaranteed.

Giving them a chance was.