The Norwegian government killed Freya, the vacationing walrus who had become popular with tourists. This story is awful. [Buzzfeed]
The FBI says Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger in the Rust shooting. [Dlisted]
Margot Robbie is vacationing with Sienna Miller & Cara Delevingne? [LaineyGossip]
Rosie O’Donnell regrets making fun of Anne Heche. [OMG Blog]
This NOLA rape case is horrific. [Jezebel]
Lili Reinhart’s bold fashion in NYC. [Go Fug Yourself]
TikTokers do the most random things. [Gawker]
Emily Ratajkowski took her dog for a walk. [Just Jared]
Jordan Peele shows how we’re killing show business in Nope. [Pajiba]
I really don’t like this dress on Mindy Kaling! [RCFA]
Jennifer Lopez sends a message of support to Britney Spears. [Towleroad]
Charlie XCX is still around and making music videos. [Egotastic]
By any measure, killing Freya was absolutely the wrong decision by Norway. https://t.co/ZDsOEs1yi2
— Blue Planet Society (@Seasaver) August 14, 2022
Norwegian authorities on Sunday killed a 1,300-pound walrus named Freya, who had spent weeks off the coast of Oslo climbing onto boats and lounging on piers, saying that moving her was "too high risk." https://t.co/WCGcHJAU6o
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 14, 2022
This was infuriating. Human beings couldn’t control their own bad behavior towards an animal in its own habitat, so the animal pays the ultimate price.
Aren’t we the most unruly undisciplined uncivilized of species. I am crying, really. Please, majestic wild animals, do not under any circumstance stray away from your path because we shall slay you.
I’m feeling misrepresented as a person by both the undignified slobs who wouldn’t stay away (sure their photographs are worth something now) AND the vicious authorities who rushed to murder under the pretense of human safety when their concern was in fact about the cost of relocating the animal back to its natural habitat. Sickening.
I feel heartbroken about this. I hate that other species, too many of our fellow humans, and this poor planet’s ecosystems don’t stand a chance due to the awful greed of a minority of us … whether it’s to get that “great selfie” or to feed an insatiable grasping for ever more wealth and power. Poor Freya 😭
What’s more infuriating is that Freya hadn’t attacked anyone. She’s been there for weeks, why would she suddenly become aggressive if left alone?
Why would moving her be high risk? Let me guess, “high risk” meant budget issues. Should have got people to donate or found the money somehow.
@ SAD, after the first warning and people still ignored them, they should have announced they would fine everyone x number of dollars (per person regardless of age), per infraction and 30 days to pay. Then used all that money to help pay for her relocation. Even if that meant mom, dad, and two toddlers had to pay four fines. No, young children aren’t responsible for where they are taken, but that could just be considered a consequence of the parents being irresponsible by putting the kids in that situation in the first place.
RIP Freya. What a beautiful animal.
They could have created two jobs with two FT patrolling officers who were welcoming to tourists and managed Freya as well. Would have kept boosting tourism and made for a lot of cool and, yes, a little uncertainty when it came to outcomes. But people were already clearly made aware they were taking a risk if they didn’t keep away from her.
Where’s the humanism, the ethics and heart in all this? This is the sort of excessive rationalism towards nature you often see in Northern European countries. What about that giraffe that was killed in a zoo, proudly, and fed to the lions a few years back? Think that was Denmark.
I agree. This was so unnecessary and cruel. Humans are the problems, not innocent animals. Poor Freya. This was barbaric and never should have happened.
They should have euthanized those taunting and entering the space of Freya, not Freya herself!!
I hate humans. We are the ones destroying the other species of this planet. All a bunch of selfish, unruly and disrespectful. They ALL killed Freya!!
This makes me so sad and angry. Freya was a star. I can’t believe some zoo or shelter wouldn’t have taken her. What a lazy evil thing to do.
I don’t agree with what Norway did but taking a wild animal into captivity is not the answer either. They should have left her alone.
RIP Freya. You never stood a chance.
Shout out to the now paralyzed 18yo who thought it would be cute to pet the buffalo in Yellowstone Park. I think she’s #6 this year, so far?
In Yellowstone, I take the attitude that these idiots get what they ask for and have no sympathy for them. Yellowstone even has a Facebook page highlighting the idiots who do incredibly dangerous and incredibly stupid things near the wildlife.
When you enter the park, there are multiple warning signs that you are entering at your own risk AND that it is the wildlife’s home, not ours. They give multiple pamphlets to each car explaining the dangers of getting too close to the animals, especially the bison, who injury more people than all the other animals combined. And within a mile of entering the park, you always see someone getting way too close to bison.
I saw the same thing in Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota. Several signs alongside the road saying don’t stop, don’t get out of your car, buffalo run faster than you, etc. And what do people do? Stop, get out of their car, go up to pet the buffalo & get a picture. Oh, and similar thing at the Grand Canyon. Signs saying ‘don’t go beyond this point’. And what do people do? You guessed it, go beyond that point. And I get really irked when they take their dogs into the danger zone. Not sure how many people die there each year, but it’s mostly due to their own idiocy.
It was South Dakota (not that Yellowstone doesn’t have their own share of idiots approaching wild life). I note her distance from the buffalo has changed from when I read about it in the Times. And they decided to walk where they did because they were hot and tired (another change from British reporting that implied the bull was upset by the dog they were walking).
People need to give wildlife their space. And when walking anywhere be aware of your surroundings, it’s not always the big animals that get you. Around here you have to be aware of rattle snakes.
RIP poor Freya, humans failed you.
Someone took a photo a few weeks ago of tourists in the Northern Territory (Australia) just hanging out and chatting on the banks of a crocodile infested river. It was absolutely wild. You could see all the crocs in the water, looking like logs, deciding which part of the human buffet they’d like to leap out and sample!
Disgusting.
Shame on those idiotic people constantly stalking this animal.
Right? People are so stupid and selfish. I don’t understand the mindset of people going and making this situation worse after they were told not too. Like I wouldn’t never be like, screw that I’m going!
I don’t understand why they couldn’t just start fining the people who didn’t listen? I feel a bit naive asking that, but it just seems so bizarre that that only solution was killing Freya. Post signs that tell people to stay back or face fines, go hit anyone that doesn’t listen with a $500 fine. Use the $ towards animal conservation. Win/Win. The worst part was that it seems that experts say the walrus would have moved along soon enough. The whole thing is really upsetting.
People in my area have stopped calling Forestry to report bear sightings. In almost every single case, their solution is to shoot the bear or the orphaned cub/s.
I confess that I have not read about this. I can’t – it makes my stomach turn with disgust just imagining what has happened to this innocent animal. I know it is a cowardly coping mechanism to stick my head in the sand and that it accomplishes nothing but it’s the way I protect myself from becoming more and more misanthropic.
It breaks my heart the disregard people have for the lives of other species. It’s a barbaric view of life; one that I hope will become less and less acceptable.
Humans are truly the worst.
Did they even attempt putting up some gates or other barriers? From that one photo it didn’t look like it. And WTF is wrong with people that they can’t just leave something alone.
Look up Timothy Treadwell. I think he had a mental illness / health issue though. But he managed to get that poor innocent bear who was just trying to feed itself during a rough season killed, and his gf as well.
I read that rape story this weekend and wow. Made me feel physically sick. We are really truly f@&$ed.
The point is that law enforcement and the justice system are *never* a deterrent to rape. the only way to fight rape is to fight rape culture. We can only stop rape at the source, rapists. It sucks but that’s how it is. Every man in the the #notallmen contingent needs to take responsibility for educating boys and other men about consent. Speak up. Never allow your silence to condone rapey attitudes.
@Bettyrose you are absolutely right and you said the thing that is most important. Thank you for expressing this. Without changing how our boys are raised we cannot move forward.
I lived in NOLA almost 20 years and had the time of my life. It is so dangerous now, carjackings and shootings like it’s the Wild West. In the French Quarter, very few bartenders are going to cut you off when you have had too much. I had to check on a girl once at Mardi Gras and tell her to pull up her underwear. It’s so bad.
I live in Oakland, previously Chicago, and the fact is that crime is a symptom of social injustice and economic inequality. Those are incredibly important social ills to address and resolve. Sexual violence is something different, though. It exists in all cultures and socioeconomic classes. And as we well know, women are most likely to be assaulted by someone they know, or someone in their own ethnic or socioeconomic community. Therefore, resolving issues of racism and poverty won’t resolve rape. The *only* way to solve the problem of rape is to create a society that sees women as human beings. Not your mom. Not your sisters. *All women*
My son went to LSU in Baton Rouge and went to New Orleans often, having a great time (too much of one!). He was there a few months ago for a friend’s wedding and came back saying he doesn’t think he will be returning any time soon. The wedding was in a nice area, as was his hotel. But he didn’t feel safe, and neither did his girlfriend who went with him. NOLA is wonderful but it needs to get things under control. Of course, it is a problem with many sources and addressing it will take comprehensive approach. But still, this hurts everyone who lives there. It hurts ordinary citizens, law enforcement, and the economy which has a large tourism component. It’s a vicious cycle.
My understanding is NOLA has had a notoriously corrupt & inept police department for a very long time, as in decades. This was such a sickening & disheartening thing to read, and that the chief had the gall to basically say ‘stop picking on us’? My god.
Instead of her, they should have euthanized the ones bothering the poor walrus. i said what i said!
You said what needed to be said.
I’m with you Cali_girl.
The government’s excuse is basically “we couldn’t be arsed to relocate her.” It’s a disturbing trend up there. Kinda don’t want to give Scandinavia my tourist money, now.
They are basing this off the other two animals that Finland tried to relocate this year (the beluga whale and another walrus/seal(?)) Both of them died painfully during the transit.
There’s not a walrus transport unit on call and moving these kinds of marine animals is really hard in the best of conditions. That walrus isn’t native to Norway so it wasn’t eating correctly as well. It sucks, but it was the kinder more humane thing for the animal.
The people to really be mad at are the jerks who were told if they kept approaching the animal it would be put down and they still came out in the hundreds.
Was the “kinder thing to do”? The f—k? This kind of justification and normalization of this kind of thing is the problem. How about protect the species, punish/fine/patrol the human dbags as a start for humane ways to handle this. “People were probs gonna get hurt bc of their own behavior so we killed it” = NOPE.
Thanks, Scal, for your insights. But if moving her wasn’t viable (wasn’t about finances), then they should have explored maybe scaring her off or luring her and getting her out of that area. So sad!
So maybe the lesson is that humans shouldn’t intervene. Protect the animal from human interference and allow nature to take its course. In my experience the Scandinavian countries do have a different attitude to animals, remember that Norway is one of the few countries that still practices commercial whaling.
I’m dying to see Nope, but I don’t have room in my life to go to movies. Why can’t all movies be released same day or shortly after on streaming? I’ll pay for it. I’ll pay a lot for it in the case of Jordan Peele films. I’m not leaving my house and dogs on a Friday night to be sneezed on by strangers, though. If there were any independent theaters left, my heart would break for them. But since they’re aren’t and I don’t spend money on concessions anyway, no one is making money off me going to the theater but the studio executive overlords. Who still make money off my $25 for a streaming event. I’m not paying for parking, concessions, and a COVID test. Release movies online!!
(I did go to the theater to see Peele’s sequel to Candyman, but that’s only because 20 of us rented a private theater and socially distanced).
Freya had stays in Denmark and Ireland and seem to be moving around. This was shocking and l was so angry they did this to her. They are a disgrace as a country. Why couldn’t they just leave her in peace and sleep as they need 20 hours per day !!Adults even brought their v young children to see her just ignoring de warnings,.all taking their glorified selfies,,,, Never ever visit that country again.
A lot of us Norwegians are angry at the government for taking the easy way out here, but they are blaming those idiots who would not leave her alone. The Minister of Fisheries has received threats (which is not OK of course). We could well afford to move her to the Arctic (Walruses are actually native to Norway, not to the mainland but to the seas around Svalbard). She was living her best life like Hank the Tank and I loved pictures of her chilling on boats. She was beautiful. Everyone I know is mad about this, so please don`t think all Norwegians are onboard with killing her.
This makes my insides hurt. Idiotic humans killed her because of course they did. It’s time certain, “vulnerable” species warrant a different kind of protection. Don’t bother means stay back. Those who don’t get astronomical fines and a hit from a tranq gun removing them from the premises.
Dude this makes me so sad about freya. People are so awful, this poor beautiful creature lost her life because people are just terrible.
Just some facts in honour of Freya, RIP:
– Walruses can live for up to 40 years and females start breeding at 6 – 7, which means Freya, estimated to be around 5, probably hadn’t even had babies yet.
– A group of walruses is a Huddle
– Experts said she would have left of her own accord sooner or later
I am so sad about this. My heart breaks every time I see a picture of her beautiful face. Poor creature. Failed by humans.
Humans are fucking garbage. What would’ve happened is some kid or something would’ve fucked around and found out WHY you do not fuck with a ton plus marine mammal and died, and Freya would’ve been killed in probably a much less humane fashion. As a species, we’re just trash.
Summer is ending and Freya would have possibly left on her own. I don’t understand why people didn’t heed the warning to leaver her alone, like wth???
Alec Baldwin…I know nothing about prop guns but I figured it didn’t just discharge, trigger pulled. It’s been a slow investigation and I’m sure the longer this goes on, the more pain her family suffers.
Mind boggled re: rape case. I am a frequent visitor ( b4 pandemic at least) to NOLA. I rarely go to the FQ because it’s usually congested and raunchy.
I love Mindy’s dress. The colors are so flattering and minus the sleeves it has a nice silhouette and I don’t love or hate the sleeves.