The suffering of a whale in a river... severe pain and incurable disease, and its fate is euthanasia

A French locality said a sick whale washed up in the Seine River will be euthanized after a plan to return it to the sea failed, and scientists concluded it was in excruciating pain and terminal illness.

The four-meter-long whale, whose species has been identified as a male, was first seen at the mouth of the Seine on May 16 between the port of Le Havre and the town of Honfleur in Normandy, before swimming dozens of miles upstream and arriving west of Rouen.

After a meeting with local and international scientists, including marine mammal specialists, the local county on Saturday tried to guide the whale back into the sea by drone with the killer whales chirping.

The Seine District said in a statement that the whale responded "randomly" and "disorderly" to sound stimuli.

An audio recording of the whale captured what they said resembled the animal's distress calls.

The statement added that "the attempt to return the whale to the sea was unsuccessful, and in order to prevent an increase in its tension, a decision was taken to stop the intervention in the evening."

The scientists reviewed photos and data from the intervention and concluded that the whale was suffering from mucositis, or black fungus, a disease seen in whales in North America but not yet spotted in Europe.

The province said that after the weakened skin of the animals is infected, the disease can spread to the heart, lungs and brain, which explains the whale's turbulent behavior.

She added that the disease appeared to be in a very advanced stage and may cause great suffering to the whale.

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