So yes, Keiko the famous whale is dead. And, rare for a whale,
his final resting place is not the bottom of the ocean where his
hefty bones would be licked clean by crabs and eels. Keiko the
famous whale ended up in a big hole in the ground. In Norway.
"The normal practice is to sink dead sea mammals in open sea, but
this is a special situation," said Olav Lekve of the Norwegian
Fiskeridirektoratet.
A special situation?
Well yes. A sea mammal whose very existence epitomised the quest
for a return to the wild had died, and so they decided to hoist
the corpse into a tractor-dug ditch in a cold field.
Keiko must be spinning in his grave.
"We wanted to let him be at peace," said one of Keiko's
caretakers, Dane Richards. "He's free now and in the wild."
Well, sort of.
But why stop a hole in a field? Why not airlift him to the top of
a Peruvian mountain and let his flesh be eaten by scrawking
vultures? That would have been nice and wild. And just about as
appropriate.
TRIBUTES POUR IN
=
Of all the tributes to this actor, activist, statesman and
entertainer, none have been more touching than those which have
flooded into the Oregon newspaper, the Statesman Journal.
http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=72277
Keiko, of course, spent two years as a citizen of Oregon, after
being rescued from a zoo in Mexico. And his stay there will not
be forgotten:
'Keiko never should have left Oregon. Oregonians loved Keiko as
much as Keiko loved us - My first experience with Keiko was,
hopefully, one of the most meaningful moments in my life. He
came directly to me and looked me directly in the eye as if to
say 'Hi! I know you think I'm very special, and in turn I
really think you're very special.'
- Ellen Wetzler, Dallas
...
'Did his life have meaning? You bet. I loved that whale.'
- Peggy Davidson, Salem
...
'It's a sad thing that we lose such a memento.'
- Robert and Ruby Sieler, Keizer
...
'I loved that big animal, and I'm very sad he died. I don't think
he should ever have left. I have a T-shirt, I have a poster, I
have Keiko cola.'
- Connie Hooker, Willamina
...
Marvellous tributes indeed, but we will leave the last words to
Lars Olav Lilleboe, who was in charge of looking after the famous
whale:
"People should remember Keiko as a living animal frolicking in
the water, and not as a huge cadaver."
Amen to that.
I never eaten a celebrity before. 
- By wat0n
- By QatzelOk
- By Rancid