Has anybody seen Winter the dolphin on the news?
She was a baby dolphin who was found in the wild very ill. Her tail had also fallen off and she had been swimming like a shark. Anyway the group that found her nursed her back to health and made her a prosthetic tail! It was amazing and Winter seemed to like it although she'll need alot of training with it.

I think this situation shows an ethical dilemna though. What are everyones thoughts and feelings about this sort of intervention with wildlife?

There are always pros and cons--I would assume that Winter is not to be released into the wild? So, is she necessary for breeding purposes, because she represents a different set of gene? I suppose the real question is why it was done (the tail replacement, that is). Would she have survived without the tail prosthesis?

Kingfisher

Well she was managing to swim like a shark but they said this would lead to spinal damage so she probably wouldn't have survived without being rescued or the fake tail

Yes, I went back and read some of the news stories. It sounds as if she would not have made it without human intervention. It seemed obvious from the stories that the company making the prothesis looks at it as a good PR move, and an interesting study, with the possibility of making advances in human prosthetics.

Still, it's not as if she can be released to the wild, so your original question is a good one. I would be hard pressed to say no, but dolphins can live to be quite old, and if so much money is spent on one dolphin, there are probably a good number of other animals which could have benefitted just as well...

Kingfisher

It's an interesting point, although I always like to hear that animals are being helped in novel ways. If the dolphin could have survived in the wild without its fin then it should have been left and there is still an argument that if an animal is injured in the wild it should not be interfered with.

Personally I think that if an animal is going to die because of an injury, and there is something we can do for it and extend its life and it will live in good conditions even if not in the wild, then it should be saved if possible.