The anatomy of a healthy dolphin.

We were excited/saddened to learn about the dolphin frolicking down the East River yesterday. Saddened, because the life-span of dolphins hanging out in New York's rivers and canals of late has been super short, but excited, because this dolphin, unlike the one in the Hudson in 2011 or the one in the Gowanus Canal in January,  appeared to be relatively healthy. The Times is on it:"Just a dolphin swimming through,” a (police) spokesman said. “It is not in distress and we did not aid it.” He added, “Why would we pursue a dolphin?”

Right you are sir! Tally-ho! Let the bottlenose go!

Of course, those bummers at New York Magazine had to point out that just because it appears healthy doesn't mean the sea mammal actually is healthy. "

Kim Durham, the rescue-program director at the Riverhead Foundation, tells the Post, “He’s not a healthy animal, but he’s not at death’s door. He’s thin, but he’s swimming very well."

So is the little guy healthy or unhealthy? And either way, shouldn't somebody *achem*RIVERHEAD*achem* be trying to secure transportation for Dorito 2 out of the second most filthy body of water in NYC?

The beached whale struggling in the water near the shore in Breezy Point yesterday. (Photo: Getty)

Residents in Breezy Point, which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, were hoping the rescue of an endangered finback whale that washed up on the beach there yesterday would provide a happy ending to what has been an incredibly difficult year for the neighborhood. However, it was not meant to be. Rob DiGiovanni, the executive director and senior biologist of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which was attempting to help save the animal, told The Observer the whale did make it off the beach, but it seems to have died.

"As of right now, the animal was lost last night," Mr. DiGiovanni said. "It looks like it moved a little off the shore, relocated and it does appear to be dead."

Rescuers gave the whale a grim prognosis, but they were keeping it wet and hoped it might be able to move offshore with the high tide. Mr. DiGiovanni said he received the information about the whale's condition from Riverhead Foundation staffers who were on scene. He was en route to the whale's location when he spoke to us a few minutes ago and did not have information about the animal's time of death.

Whales often beach themselves when sick or injured. Mr. DiGiovanni said he believed this whale was no exception and was probably already near death when it washed up on the shore. Prior to its death, the whale was bleeding from its mouth and tail and Mr. DiGiovanni said it weighed "less than half of what we would expect an animal of that size to be."

"It did present itself as a severely emaciated animal," he explained. "I don't think it was the case that it was stuck on the beach ... It was sick and it was in the process of dying. It didn't move far because it didn't have any of the energy to do that."

David Duke and his dog, in happier times. (Photo: YouTube)

Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke may hate the Jews, but he sure loved his dog, Torri. When the seventeen-year-old, all-white (naturally!) Maltese died a few months back, Mr. Duke did what any of us would do after the loss of a beloved pet--he filmed a nearly fifteen minute video tribute to the dog and uploaded it to YouTube complete with an emotional folk soundtrack, photos of Torri exploring the great outdoors and musings on the nature of life, death and grief.

Mr. Duke initially made his "Tribute to Torri" private, but he has since relaxed the clip's privacy settings at "the urging of those who met Torri over the last 17 years." We're so glad Mr. Duke chose to share his video, because it's all kinds of incredible. Despite how amazing this video it is, it somehow seems to have escaped the attention of the internet, so we present it to you now. 

"It's been two weeks since Torri died....It still hurts," Mr. Duke explains as the video begins. "Grief actually can be quite wonderful. It heals the soul and it's such a tribute to the spirit that has passed on....I want to express my heart while these feelings flood over me like warm waves. We all, once upon a time long ago, came from the water and the tears that fill our blurry eyes, even against our will, wash us and heal us."

According to Mr. Duke, Torri was an invaluable companion in his crusade against "Zionist-driven Globalism."

"The eternal struggle for our peoples' heritage and our freedom is so hard sometimes. There are so many difficulties on this high, rough road," said Mr. Duke. "Torri would sit by me the countless hours as I wrote books and articles. And it seemed she was always telling me, 'Keep doing your job, I'm doing mine staying by your side.'"

The small dog didn't simply help Mr. Duke by sitting near him. He also credits Torri with being a sounding board as he created his 1998 "masterpiece," My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding, in which he purports to provide "compelling evidence that belief in racial equality is the modern scientific equivalent of believing that the earth is flat."

"She truly helped me write my seven hundred page book My Awakening. She was there to listen to me read aloud what I had just written to make sure it had the rhythm and eloquence that I sought. And Torri always looked at me intently when I spoke to her," Mr. Duke said.

Though Torri clearly spent a great deal of time with Mr. Duke in front of a keyboard, she also traveled the globe with him. In his video, Mr. Duke claims he and the dog "explored ancient European ruins" and "climbed at least 500 mountains and hills" together.

"She even secretly made her way in her shoulder bag into places like the Sistine Chapel, and the Louvre and a number of places that her kind were banned," explained Mr. Duke.

Torri's portability was a key part of her appeal to Mr. Duke. In his video he said he chose to get a Maltese, a toy dog breed, because he needed an animal that was "small enough to easily go wherever I went." This apparently raised eyebrows with his friends as carrying a small, toy dog in a man-purse was incongruous with his image as a white nationalist firebrand.

"A few times my friends told me, 'How can you carry around that little, quote, 'fag' dog?' I told them that I was a man secure enough in my heterosexuality that I sure was not going to worry about what people might think," Mr. Duke said.

Indeed, Mr. Duke's life isn't all angry racist rhetoric. His love for animals is just one aspect of his softer side. Mr. Duke also moonlights in "PhotoArt," a discipline he seemingly created himself that involves taking pictures of landscapes and then  using a computer to add "artistic flourish in color, brightness, contrast, composition, line and form to make a truly beautiful photo-artwork that will captivate and inspire you." According to Mr. Duke's website, some of his "PhotoArt" has even "been quietly displayed in European showings and galleries under a nom de plume."

Apparently, in this internet-dominated age, the White Nationalist world, much like the rest of society, is being taken over by Instagram-style digitally-manipulated nature photos and cute animal videos.

Watch Mr. Duke's "Tribute to Torri" video below.

Luka Magnotta posing as James Dean in Los Angeles. (Photo: Luka-Magnotta.Deviantart.com)

Last Chance for Animals, an organization "dedicated to eliminating animal exploitation" has taken responsibility for posting a series of YouTube pages "glorifying" accused Canadian killer Luka Magnotta and referencing the case of a severed head found by the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles earlier this year. According to an LCA press release, these videos were made by their "special investigations unit" in an attempt to "lure in the killer, or his companions, using covert tactics often reserved for law enforcement and intelligence agencies."

"SIU investigators immediately got to work and posted a video glorifying Magnotta, dubbing him 'The James Dean Killer,'" the press release said.  "A second video titled '1 Man 1 Icon' was produced to continue the façade using family photos of Magnotta that had not yet been featured in the press."

LCA was founded by a former soap opera actor named Chris DeRose in the 1980's. In addition to Mr. Magnotta's family photos, the YouTube videos posted by LCA also featured pictures of the Hollywood sign, references to the Satanic Bible and a description calling Mr. Magnotta “the sexiest serial killer ever to walk the earth.”

Mr. Magnotta was arrested in Berlin on Monday after an international manhunt after he allegedly killed and dismembered a man named Lin Jun in Montreal. Mr. Magnotta allegedly posted a gruesome video of the crime online and mailed the body parts to the headquarters of Canadian political parties. When he was caught, Mr. Magnotta was in an internet cafe reading news articles about himself. Prior to the Jun killing, Mr. Magnotta earned the ire of animal rights activists after he was linked to a series of videos that allegedly showed him killing kittens.

According to the LCA, their videos caused them to make contact "with several individuals who may have been Luka, or close associates of Luka" and "that information was turned over to Law Enforcement."

The Observer previously alerted police in Montreal and Los Angeles to the videos posted by LCA in light of other potential links between Mr. Magnotta and the Hollywood sign killing. Along with the videos, there are similarities in the methodology of the Jun killing and the Hollywood Sign murder, which both involved severed body parts placed in prominent locations, as well as Facebook postings on one of the many accounts attributed to Mr. Magnotta that indicate he was in Los Angeles less than one month after the Hollywood Sign killing.

On Monday, a police detective in Montreal told us they planned to communicate with the LAPD to discuss the possibility Mr. Magnotta was involved in that case. At the time, we noted, "it’s impossible to say for sure whether the HollywoodLoveLetters account belongs to Mr. Magnotta and whether he actually had anything to do with the Hollywood Sign killing. The only thing that’s certain is that someone out there is going to great lengths to associate him with it."

Apparently, that someone was the LCA.

We were made aware of the LCA's press release after receiving an email from an anonymous member of the organization. We asked them whether they were concerned about potentially wasting the time and energy of law enforcement officials who were looking into the videos and why they chose to reference the Hollywood sign killing in their postings.

"I'm really sorry, but I will need to clear any further comments with LCA's president," they said.

Don't worry, it's docile. (@TheGoodfella_)

As if child slave labor in China wasn't bad enough, Footlocker's reputation took another hit recently when a Twitter used named @Thegoodfella_ tweeted a photo of a five foot rat went viral on the web. Don't worry though: an animal curator quoted by The Huffington Post, the creature, allegedly found in a Bronx store earlier this year (the photo was uploaded on Facebook earlier this year before it made the Twitter rounds) promised that "no way it's a common sewer rat."

"I'm 90 percent certain that it's a a Gambian pouched rat," said Dr. Robert S. Voss, the Curator of Mammals at The American Museum of Natural History in New York. And apparently Gambian rats are pretty docile. So if you trip over one of these horrific fellas while doing inventory, don't worry! It probably didn't come crawling out of your toilet. It's just a freak incident, at least until we find out the whole thing was a hoax to begin with.