Engineer Finds More Humane Way of Euthanizing Beached Whales

A new method has been designed to put beached whales out of their misery: an enormous needle.

The huge needle comes in a kit of three sizes, ranging between 3.3 and 5 feet long, and measuring 0.3 inches across.

This "whale euthanasia kit" was invented by Australian engineer Girius Antanaitis, who designs surgical tools for both human and animal medical procedures, for cases where a stranded marine mammal cannot be saved.

Often, stranded whales can take days to die, developing severe burns in the sun and suffering as they are picked at by scavengers.

"Whale strandings are pretty common around the world and mass strandings are particularly traumatic for rescue teams. There are many instances where it is clear that animals can't be saved, so the question is how to put them down as humanely as possible," Culum Brown, a marine biology professor at Macquarie University, told Newsweek.

The needle is designed to pierce into the stranded whale's heart and inject it with drugs, killing it humanely and with minimal pain. Previous methods to euthanize stranded marine mammals have included using firearms and even explosives, neither of which have been particularly successful or painless for the animal.

"The procedure would not be painless, but I think this method is far better than leaving the animals to slowly die on the beach and probably more effective than a gunshot to the head," Brown said.

The special needles will deliver potassium chloride into the heart of the animal, rapidly ending their life.

"Potassium chloride is commonly used as a euthanasia method in a wide range of animals, they even use it in the U.S. for lethal injections on people. It can be delivered either intravenously or directly to the heart. The latter is quicker. A big enough dose causes cardiac arrest. The patient dies reasonably quickly, within minutes. It is often mixed with a sedative to help calm the patient," Brown said. "Basically these guys are engineering a scaled-up version of this for whales. It seems like the plan is to go direct to the heart, which would require an experienced vet."

Injecting a whale with substances is very difficult due to their extremely thick and tough skin and blubber. The needle is a different structure to a normal needle, allowing it to puncture deep within the whale's body.

"The trickiest thing [is] ... they're not like a standard needle, where it's just a tube with a hole and a sharp tip," Antanaitis told ABC. "My needles all have to be closed, so it doesn't core the animal while it goes in. It has a pyramid tip that cuts its way through."

The hearts of blue whales—the largest species of whale—can be up to 5 feet tall, and weigh over 1,000 pounds.

"There are 2 problems: 1) The skin is thick and very tough, then there is a layer of blubber so the needle needs to be tough enough to get through. 2) Because the gauge is so big, there is a problem of the needle getting clogged on the way in. If that happens the injection can't be administered. It looks to me like they have come up with good solutions to both those problems," Brown said.

"All in all it looks to be a very good solution."

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