Whales and dolphins that strand on beaches face acute welfare emergencies. The British Divers Marine Life Rescue and partners provide rapid response to minimise suffering.
Cetacean strandings cause severe and rapid welfare deterioration. A beached whale or dolphin quickly develops dehydration, hyperthermia, and organ stress from its own body weight pressing on internal organs out of water. Pain from the stranding cause (injury or disease) compounds these stressors. The welfare-appropriate response involves cooling the animal, keeping it upright, and assessing whether refloating is possible and likely to succeed. For animals with irrecoverable illness or injury, rapid euthanasia prevents prolonged suffering. BDMLR's trained medics can make this assessment and have access to appropriate euthanasia methods - critical for timely welfare response.