Lewis the koala, who rose to fame after being rescued from the Australian brush fired last week, died Tuesday due to severe burn wounds.
After inspecting Lewis’ wounds, the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital determined that it would be in the koala’s best interest to be euthanized. The hospital announced this decision through a Facebook post.
“(Our) number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made,” the hospital said.
Lewis was receiving treatment for hid wounds at the hospital, along with pain relief medication to minimize his suffering. The hospital warned on Saturday that it would be considering putting the koala to sleep if his wounds failed to be “treatable or tolerable.”
According to The Washington Post, Lewis was rescued by Toni Doherty after she saw him dart across the road she was driving down. Doherty sprinted to the animal, grabbed him from a tree and swaddled him in her shirt.
Doherty, who named Lewis after one of her grandsons, got there for the animal as he was put to sleep on Tuesday.
“We are naturally very sad about this, as we were hoping he’d pull through,” Toni’s husband, Peter, said. “But we accept his injuries were severe and debilitating and would have been quite painful.”
About 2.5 million acres of land have burned in Australia with an innumerable amount of koalas lost along the way, The New York Times reported.
Because of industrialization and climate change, the animals have already made the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. The fires ravaging the Australian landscape have put these animals into even more danger and are now being called a “national tragedy.”
According to CNN, Lewis was around 14 years of age at the time of his death.