Baby penguin stolen (church, pray, worship, Article)

[michel]

Baby Penguin stolen from a Zoo. The penguin's parents are, apparently, showing signs of distress.


Britain

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...956706,00.html

Times Online December 22, 2005
Penguin 'dumped at Portsmouth dock'
By Times Online and David Rose of The Times




Toga (Hampshire Police/Handout/PA)

Toga, the baby penguin stolen from an Isle of Wight zoo, may have been dumped at Portsmouth docks, zookeepers said today.
The zoo has received an anonymous call saying that the three-month-old jackass penguin was deposited at the docks alive. It is one of a number of unconfirmed sightings of the missing bird.


A police spokeswoman said: “Police are investigating after a man rang GMTV and said he had dumped it in a plastic bag at Portsmouth dockyard.
“The news of him being in a plastic bag doesn’t sound good for his chances of being alive. We are also investigating the possibility that this call was a hoax.”
Early reports suggested that Toga may have been left in the water. His zookeepers, pleading for people in the area to look out for the penguin, said the young bird can swim but will be weak due to lack of food and is likely now to be out of the water on a boat or buoy.
Kath Bright, the manager of the Amazon World zoo on the Isle of Wight, from which the bird was stolen five days ago, said yesterday that her staff had been left exhausted and tearful after earlier reported sightings of the bird had failed to lead to its recovery.
Vets said yesterday that the12in-tall bird would live for only another day or so without proper care and food regurgitated by his mother.
The reward for Toga's safe return rose to £5,000 yesterday as donations and messages of support were sent to its owners from across the world.
The jackass penguin’s plight has attracted the attention of the world’s media. Wellwishers from as far afield as Russia, the United States, Canada, Belgium and New Zealand have contacted the zoo with pledges of money and messages of support. In New York, worshippers at a Brooklyn church prayed for Toga’s safe return, while the zoo’s switchboard has been inundated with concerned callers since the news emerged.
Staff believe that the popularity of March of the Penguins, the French documentary film, may have inspired the crime. They were eager to point out that the jackass penguin is an endangered specie

[Mike182]

at the risk of looking like a fool, does this have anything to do with the outrage over zookeepers beraking up gay penguin couples

seriously though, i hope the penguin is found and cared for

[Tek]

I think the guy who did such a thing is crule and very ingnorant....... What do such a mean thing to such a cute little animal . wow i smilled....

[Suzy]

I heard on the radio earlier that they are not expecting to find it alive now. Too much time has gone by.

[jonny]

I just watched the March of the Penguins the other day. Baby penguins have a tough life.

[Jaymes]

Poor baby! I can't imagine what possessed someone to steal him...

[painted wolf]

poor guy is probably dead by now....

sadly movies have a bad habit of makeing animals "in" as pets... remember 101 dalmations.

unfortunatly this leads to tradgedy, when people get animals for being 'cool' rather than actually wanting to care for another life.

wa:do

[michel]

And people say that animals don't have feelings ? - The parents pined so much after the disappearance of their little baby. Now Dad stands at the entrance to his nest, fiercly guarding his new baby............A happy end to a sad story.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html

New baby penguin to take on stolen Toga's conservation role
By Fiona Govan
(Filed: 22/02/2006)
A chick born to the parents of a stolen baby penguin will play an important role in conservation when it is sent to South Africa and released into the wild.

The chick was hatched on Feb 14 to Kyala and Oscar after their first offspring, three-month-old Toga, was stolen from Amazon World Zoo on the Isle of Wight. Thieves broke in and stole the infant jackass penguin overnight on Dec 17 and despite several sightings and a £25,000 reward, he has not been found.

The baby penguin with its mother, Kyala, yesterday

Kyala and Oscar spent weeks pining for their missing offspring, before laying two eggs on Jan 19. The second egg has proved to be infertile.

Derek Curtis, the owner of Amazon World, said that the chick was only the second to have been hatched at the zoo, Toga being the first.

Toga was destined to go to live in South Africa as part of a conservation programme and the new chick will now take his place.

The sex of the chick will not be known until it grows feathers in about eight weeks' time.

23 December 2005: Hopes fading fast for baby penguin stolen from zoo