HC Deb 20 April 1999 vol 329 c477W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will investigate the appearance on beaches in the South West of beheaded dolphins; and if he will make a statement. [81393]

Mr. Meale

The Department continues to contract the Institute of Zoology to post-mortem small cetaceans that strand around the shores of England and Wales. The two animals found since the beginning of 1999 on the south Devon coast, which were reported to have been decapitated, were not post-mortemed because they were in too decomposed a state to yield reliable results.