A Wildlife Article from All-Creatures.org

How the Media Failed Freya the Walrus

From Claire Hamlett, SentientMedia.org
September 2022

Freya’s death is just one clear example of how the media is often complicit in perpetuating the myths told about killing animals. “Euthanize,” “cull,” “depopulate,” and “humanely slaughter” — these euphemistic terms most frequently appear in articles on the deaths of farmed animals, but also wild animals killed in the interests of the meat, dairy and aquaculture industries.

Also read The Murder of Freya by Paul Watson and I am the Walrus by Jim Robertson

Image from The Murder of Freya

Animal euthanasia is supposed to be an act of mercy. When animals are suffering from illness or injury and their quality of life is not going to improve, humans may opt for euthanasia to relieve their suffering in a way that kills them as painlessly as possible. We humans tend to think about euthanasia for our pets but there are instances when it can be appropriate for wild animals too. If you read the media coverage of Freya the walrus — shot dead by Norwegian authorities in August — you might believe her case was one such example. It wasn’t.

Most media reporting on the killing uncritically repeated the fishing ministry’s statement that Freya was euthanized. The Guardian/Agence France-Presse, Euronews, CNN, the Independent and NPR were among the many outlets that used the word, even though Freya was neither ill nor injured nor suffering in any way. Rather, she was killed, according to Norways’ Directorate of Fisheries, on the grounds that she had become too much of an attraction to people who would not heed warnings to keep their distance from her and was now considered a “continued threat to human safety.”

While some newspapers also reported on the criticism of the decision to kill Freya, they failed to question or avoid — as this New York Times piece did, in a rare exception — the language used by the fishing ministry. This includes the implications of its statement in a news release that the possibility of relocating Freya was considered “not a viable option” because of “the extensive complexity of such an operation.” As Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson wrote in a recent article, “Clearly a cost-benefit analysis was done, and it was concluded that it would just be too difficult to move Freya elsewhere.” Freya’s life didn’t just rank lower than the welfare of humans willingly putting themselves in harm’s way, but lower even than some logistical effort and expense from the authorities. In light of this, it isn’t just incorrect to say she was euthanized, it is arguably a form of humane-washing.

Worse still, the fisheries ministry has so far refused to release any further details about Freya’s killing, including how the decision was made and why other measures, such as fining people who got too close, weren’t tried first. Some critics have suggested that the action was taken to protect the fishing and whaling industries of Norway from the public developing too much sympathy for marine mammals, including the seals who are legally hunted in Norway and routinely killed by fish farming companies. I don’t expect reporters to have speculated on any potentially hidden motives for Freya’s killing, but there could have been more effort to highlight what information was missing or being withheld, as well as that the fisheries ministry is primarily concerned with managing “marine resources” and not with wild animal welfare.

Freya’s death is just one clear example of how the media is often complicit in perpetuating the myths told about killing animals. “Euthanize,” “cull,” “depopulate,” and “humanely slaughter” — these euphemistic terms most frequently appear in articles on the deaths of farmed animals, but also wild animals killed in the interests of the meat, dairy and aquaculture industries. They hide the usually brutal realities of slaughterhouses and mass killings carried out for reasons such as stopping disease spread or reducing competition for resources like grazing land. They make these killings sound like something perhaps regrettable, but definitely unavoidable, rather than the outcome of our choices.

In replicating this pattern of reporting in the case of Freya, the media failed her.

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