Over $22,000 Raised For Freya The Walrus Memorial Statue In Norway Following The Animal's Euthanasia

Following the controversial euthanasia of Freya the Walrus by the Norwegian Fisheries Ministry on Sunday, almost 1,350 citizens have pledged over 214,000 Norwegian kroner (just over $22,000) to erect a statue of the viral and majorly memed marine mammal.

Freya first wandered out of her kind's customary arctic range in 2019 when she was discovered sunning herself on top of a Dutch navy submarine. Shortly after, she was named Freya in reference to the Norse goddess of beauty and love. From there, she journeyed to Britain, Germany, Denmark and then Norway as she was enthusiastically welcomed everywhere she stopped. A Norwegian doctoral student created this map of her route:

This past summer, Freya settled into the vacation village of Kragerø, Norway for an extended stay and became well-known for destroying boats. Believing they were the closest thing she could find to ice floes, Freya would climb docked boats and sometimes sink them because she weighed over 1,300 pounds. Other exploits in Kragerø included the alleged murder of a swan.

Freya was purportedly unhappy in Norway, as she was forced south by habitat loss due to climate change and likely had difficulty finding her usual foods (thus, the swan incident). After hanging out in Kragerø and gaining a devoted online following, Freya went to Oslo Fjord and became a victim of her own internet fame as tourists and sightseers crowded her and disturbed her sleep. Authorities worried about the dangers she could pose to human swimmers, as she was frequently in highly crowded areas.

In the early hours of Sunday, August 14th, the Norwegian Fisheries ministry concluded that it could not safely transport Freya to a more remote location, and so she was euthanized (social media says she was "shot"). She joined a list of other social media animal martyrs, such as Harambe the Gorilla.

For many, Freya's death was symbolic of the damage humanity has done to the environment and to wild animals in general. Some posters on Twitter went so far as to call her a "climate refugee." The waves of condemnation were so fierce that even the Prime Minister of Norway had to comment and justify the killing.

Many expressed anger both at the crowds which had flocked to Freya while she was in Oslo and at the government which slew her.

So they are thinking of erecting a statue to #Freya in Norway. Am absolutely sure she would far rather have been protected in life than remembered in death.😡. She was euthanised because she posed a potential danger to all the idiots who got too close to her.😡

— Jan Leeming (@Jan_Leeming) August 16, 2022

Humans destroy their habitats & remove their food sources & when they get too close to tourists they are killed for no justification. Shame on Norway 🇳🇴 for killing Freya the Walrus pic.twitter.com/hNcPzn1odc

— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) August 14, 2022

Others online also joked about the viral status of the walrus.

-- wanton destruction of property-- killed by the government-- getting a statueFreya the Walrus is speedrunning the radical reputation cycle https://t.co/2V0mmqbbAz

— David Hines (@hradzka) August 16, 2022

Freya will likely not be the last walrus to head south due to climate change. The effects of melting icecaps and decreasing habitat will soon take up even more room on social media scrolls and newspaper headlines. Many are hopeful humans will learn to love the planet and its walruses more responsibly in the future.