1,100 mutilated dolphins wash up in France
A record number of mutilated dolphins have washed up on the shores of French beaches in 2019, alarming animal welfare groups globally. France is now attempting to take action, although animal rights groups said it isn't enough. According to the Associated Press, 1,100 dolphins have been found on the beaches of France's Atlantic coast since January. The dolphins were not only dead but had been badly mutilated, many with their fins cut off.
The massive amount of deaths is being blamed on the industrial fishing industry. Animal welfare groups worldwide have expressed concern, and France's ecology minister has launched a national campaign to protect them in the future.
"There's never been a number this high," Willy Daubin, a member of La Rochelle University's National Center for Scientific Research, told the AP. "Already in three months, we have beaten last year's record, which was up from 2017 and even that was the highest in 40 years."
Daubin said that 90 percent of the fatalities were a result of dolphins being accidentally captured by industrial fishing nets. However, there is not yet a clear reason for this year's massive spike.
Autopsies performed by La Rochelle University's National Center for Scientific Research show "extreme levels of mutilation." Activists said this is because fisherman often cut body parts off of suffocated dolphins caught in their nets in order to preserve the nets.
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Of our fellow mammals at the hands of us.
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834)
BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE