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The Search for Buddy the Kidnapped Penguin


Claire.

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The Search for Buddy the Kidnapped Penguin Continues

All points bulletin—if anyone sees an African penguin that answers to the name Buddy, please report it immediately to Bayworld Oceanarium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. According to Jenna Etheridge at News24, two men broke into the facility and penguin-napped Buddy last week, driving him two miles down the road to Pollock Beach, where they set him loose, letting the bird slip into the Southern Indian Ocean.

It’s a noble gesture straight out of Free Willy. The only problem is, as a bird raised in captivity, Buddy likely does not have the skills to make it in the ocean. “He is completely ill-equipped to survive in the wild. He will have no idea where he is,” Dylan Bailey, manager of Bayworld tells the BBC. “Luckily, he was a very healthy penguin—actually quite fat—so he has a good few weeks of reserves.”

The park estimates he could survive about three weeks, if a predator doesn’t get to him first.

Read more: Smithsonian

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Idiots...<_< These kinds of people have no clue and make me sick! They may as well kidnap people's pet toy poodles and let them loose in the woods miles away from civilization. Not only are these animals terrified when released they are usually dead in a few days.

If these guys are caught I vote we "set them free" in the middle of the Mojave Desert!

Edited by Michelle
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32 minutes ago, Michelle said:

Idiots...<_< These kinds of people have no clue and make me sick! They may as well kidnap people's pet toy poodles and let them loose in the woods miles away from civilization. Not only are these animals terrified when released they are usually dead in a few days.

If these guys are caught I vote we "set them free" in the middle of the Mojave Desert!

I can think of worse things to do to them. I got so upset when I read the story. It's heartbreaking, especially knowing that one of his babies died, most likely as a result of his abduction. And his poor mate who's now doing double duty. Arrgh! People can be such jerk faces. I certainly don't care for aquariums and the like keeping animals in captivity, but kidnapping and tossing them into an unfamiliar and dangerous environment is not the way to deal with it.

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Checked for updates and the news is not great. Buddy's second chick died, and still no sign of Buddy. The two guys responsible, however, have been charged. The search fo Buddy continues.

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1 hour ago, Clair said:

It's been more than a week since the last update, and still nothing. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

Sadly, he had little to no natural survival instincts. These ignorant idiots handed him a death sentence in the guise of a humanitarian effort.

I would be labeled a raving lunatic and on a watch list if I said what I think should be done to those guys.

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Take a human who has lived a totally sheltered life, who has no idea how to cook, clean or take care of themselves, and chuck them into NYC to make a living. This is what it is like for species which have lived their whole lives in zoos or aquariums. That penguin has no clue how to be a penguin, they might was well of sent him to a whole nother planet. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay so it's been more than three weeks (which is the amount of time they estimated Buddy could survive in the wild, assuming a predator didn't get to him first) and still no news one way or the other. I check every single day, sometimes twice, even though it's so depressing. They say no news is good news, but in this case no news is not so good.

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