Who would steal a baby penguin? :(

[Amy SF]

Zookeepers fear worst for purloined penguin; Toga likely to die soon if not returned to parents, veterinarians say

Updated: 6:32 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2005

LONDON - Zookeepers are struggling to stay optimistic about the fate of a baby penguin believed to have been snatched from his parents, the zoo’s manager said Wednesday.

Toga, a 3-month-old jackass penguin, was discovered missing Saturday from Amazon World on the Isle of Wight in southern England. Zoo manager Kath Bright said veterinarians believed the bird probably would die of malnutrition by Thursday night if he wasn’t reunited with his parents.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10533036/

:no:

[Katt Fink]

Oh my goodness :no: :worried:

[Alfiedog]

Gosh I always think the worst of people - my immediate thought was that he was going to be tortured and hopefully die soon before too much suffering.

[Tesseract]

WHY? WHY? WHY? :no:

[vggiegirl]

Maybe he wasn't stolen. Maybe he was liberated.

[FreshTart]

And now he can die free because, really, that's what every animal wants.

[Cissy]

:( :( :(

poor little nigel :nigel:

[brownieB26]

but in reality, it probably wasn't aome AR activist. It was probably some numbskull father with a spoiled brat who wanted a penguin for Christmas.

Poor little Toga. :(

[Elena99]

"Bright previously has said she was worried someone had stolen Toga to give as a Christmas gift, inspired by the film “March of the Penguins.”"

:(

[jenna]

what the ****.

that poor penguin.

[Cissy]

I'm still thinking... what kind of numbnuts is going to steal a penguin. I guess there are some people really that dumb.

I mean, I've jokingly asked my parents if I could get a baby panda, among other animals, but there's no way in hell I'd ever want one.

[rainbow_clouds]

People are idiots.

[*Star*Lass*]

Oh jeeeees :no:

ETA: Another link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4547722.stm#

[Mycoolcats]

yeah poor thing, hopefully someone brings it back or just drops it off if theyre scared.

[MOMO17]

No!

[Bits]

oops...i posted about this in the news board...sorry :-/

[*Star*Lass*]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4548930.stm

Now there's reports that he's been dumped in a plastic bag.. but it could be a hoax.

:(

[Amy SF]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4548930.stm

Now there's reports that he's been dumped in a plastic bag.. but it could be a hoax.

:(

Oh, crap. :no:

[WonderRandy]

I heard a story on NPR a few days ago about a long-running hoax about a stolen baby penguin. there were several versions of the story, often involving a young, mentally-challenged child stealing the bird.

This could be more of the same, or a copy-cat...

[Michael]

Penguins are cute and I really hate to hear about something like this but...

The hypocrisy always amazes me. How can people get so worked up over a missing penguin, a feral cat killing birds, a cow or pig trying to escape from a slaughterhouse, etc. and still eat something that was killed for them at virtually every meal? :no:

[Amy SF]

Penguins are cute and I really hate to hear about something like this but...

The hypocrisy always amazes me. How can people get so worked up over a missing penguin, a feral cat killing birds, a cow or pig trying to escape from a slaughterhouse, etc. and still eat something that was killed for them at virtually every meal? :no:

Good point.

[Tesseract]

The hypocrisy always amazes me. How can people get so worked up over a missing penguin, a feral cat killing birds, a cow or pig trying to escape from a slaughterhouse, etc. and still eat something that was killed for them at virtually every meal? :no:
That's true. I take it as another sign of how good we are at fooling ourselves.

PS: However, one could argue that the loss of this endangered penguin is a greater tragedy than the loss of a member of a race which numbers in the billions.

[*Star*Lass*]

We're allowed to get worked up though :)

[megveggie]

My grandpa loves penguins. He would be so upset if I told him...

Please post here if anyone finds out any more penguin news!

In the article, it said that if the penguin wasn't found before Thursday night, it would probably die. Well, it's Thursday night. :cry: . Is it too early to say Goodbye yet?

[WonderRandy]

Here's the article at Snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/critters/farce/smuggled.asp

It talks about the long running hoax, and has been updated to include this latest version. There seems to be no evidence that Toga has actually been stolen, he's just missing...