Two of the Shedd Aquarium`s beluga whales died there Tuesday following injections of anti-parasite medicine, prompting outrage from animal-rights activists who for years have fought the importation of the popular white mammals from Canada.
The whales were two of four that had arrived at the Shedd amid controversy last month, and they died Tuesday morning during treatment for lungworm that Shedd officials characterized as ”routine.”
The mysterious deaths are a serious setback for the aquarium, both in terms of science and public relations.
In addition to being star attractions in the aquarium`s 18-month-old, $45 million Oceanarium, the Shedd`s six belugas were supposed to be the principals in a captive breeding program. The aquarium is now left with just four of the whales, only one of them male.
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A chorus of ”I told you so`s” immediately arose from a host of animal-rights groups, which question the value of the science being conducted on the whales and contend that it is immoral to remove intelligent mammals from the wild to pen them in relatively tiny tanks.
At least one of the groups, the Humane Society of the United States, called Tuesday for a ban on holding whales in captivity, and Chicago-area activists held a protest vigil Tuesday night in front of the aquarium, 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive.
The two deaths following administration of the same medication left even some veteran marine-mammal handlers scratching their heads at the apparent extraordinary coincidence.
”I have more questions than answers at this point,” said Tom Otten, director of the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Wash., where the Shedd`s first pair of belugas stayed for 18 months as the Shedd was completing the Oceanarium and as their fate was played out in courts.
”I would sure suspect that (the drug) was the problem, but the necropsies are not completed yet,” Otten said. ”It is a medication which has been given successfully without killing animals. Why, then, would it kill these two?”
Otten added that he had never heard of deaths following medical injection in more than 20 years in the business. ”It should not have happened,” he said.
Shedd scientists Tuesday began their necropsies, the animal equivalent of an autopsy, on the dead adolescent whales to try to discover what killed them. But answers probably will not be coming for weeks until various lab tests are ready, according to a spokeswoman.
Both animals, a male and a female each 3 years old and weighing nearly 600 pounds, died within 20 minutes of receiving the injections, their first such treatments since arriving in Chicago on Aug. 18, according to Shedd spokeswoman Betsy Raymond.
Raymond and marine-mammal experts said it was almost certain that the whales had picked up the lungworm in the wild, although the parasites were only recently discovered. Such parasites are common, but it is important to treat them because they can diminish the body`s strength in fighting off other diseases, experts and Raymond said.
Shedd sources speculated that the belugas suffered an allergic reaction to the injection. Raymond would not name the medication, except to say that it was ”well known.” She added that following the deaths, the aquarium`s veterinarian had called other specialists to make sure he had administered the drugs properly.
Dr. Jay Sweeney, a San Diego veterinarian who specializes in large marine mammals and has served as a consultant to the Shedd in the past, said he was not surprised that animal-rights activists had seized upon the deaths to try to arouse public sympathy for the whales, which can grow to 14 feet and are known for their pronounced foreheads and the shape of their mouths, which gives them the appearance of being happy.
”It`s easy to say, `I told you so,` and awful self-righteous,” Sweeney said. ”There`s nobody feeling worse than those guys in the aquarium trying to figure out what happened.”
Andy Johnson, curator of marine mammals at the Vancouver Aquarium, which has five belugas, said the deaths only point out that ”the science of this isn`t perfect.”
He said aquarium scientists ”deal every day” with moral questions about what they do with their charges, constantly asking themselves whether the animals are getting the best possible care and being used for valuable research.
”Nothing of value is accomplished by having these animals die,” Johnson said. ”It`s expensive, it`s bad publicity and the animals don`t like it either.”
But speculation and remorse were not good enough for the 20 or so people who gathered in the cold outside the aquarium Tuesday night, decrying the deaths.
”I think this is a good turnout considering the lateness with which people were notified and considering the weather is not cooperative,” said Joy Pote-Stanford, coordinator of the Midwest chapter of The Dolphin Project. The protesters stood in front of the aquarium holding candles and signs. One woman stood off to the side, singing softly and pointing a finger at the aquarium.
”I just recently heard about the deaths,” said Mary Jackowiak, a medical-records worker from the South Side. ”Basically, they were sacrificed in the name of tourism.”
Earlier in the day, Pote-Stanford said the deaths ”bring to the forefront that these animals are indeed put under a great deal of stress. . . . The idea of keeping dolphins and whales in a concrete chlorinated box, I don`t see how that educates anybody. All that teaches is that it`s OK to abuse nature.”
Shedd officials have defended their program as a valuable educational and scientific tool, but opponents contend that because the animals are not endangered in the wild, there is no need to learn how to breed them in captivity. Raymond called that view ill-informed.
James Pearson, coordinator of the Manitoba Animal Rights Coalition and one who has protested the Shedd plucking belugas from the Churchill River in north central Canada, contended that belugas have a high mortality rate in captivity.
He said 27 of 67 captured for zoos since 1967 are now dead, despite the fact that they can live longer than 30 years in the wild.
But Sweeney said the 27 of 67 figure does not seem out of line with what he said is the average lifespan for a beluga, both in the wild and in captivity, of 8 to 12 years.
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Sweeney granted the activists one point. ”If you try to argue that those two animals would be swimming in the ocean today had they not been collected and brought to the Shedd, that is probably true,” he said. ”To say that they were going to live to be 35 years old, that is not very probable.
”We`re still having to pay the consequences of being in the early learning curve of husbandry for captive marine mammals. Maybe we`re looking at an event that makes up the learning curve.”