An official from Nam Dinh Province has defended the decision to allow local people to butcher the corpse of a whale that died in the province.
Photos showing people butchering the dead whale caused outrage online
The five-metre long whale was found on the beach of Bach Long Commune on the morning of January 18. Local people helped return the whale to the sea successfully. However, internet users expressed their anger when photos appeared on Facebook in the same afternoon, showing people cutting up the whale and sharing the meat.
People butchering the dead whale
Nguyen Van Hoa, an official from Hai Dong Commune's agriculture department said when they found the whale in the morning it had bite marks on the belly and tail. He claimed local people did return the whale to the sea, but it could not survive and was washed ashore again.
"Many people want to take the meat to feed their livestock and we agreed so the decomposing body would not cause pollution," Hoa said.
The organs and bones were buried.
He went on to say that another dead whale had been washed ashore before. They buried it under the sand and after awhile, the sand was blown and washed away, exposing the rotting body.
