At the time of this writing, it is unclear that Saru, in his role as acting captain, had informed the chain of command of his decision to order Burnham to release the tardigrade. There are, however, arguments to support this decision.

• The tardigrade was no longer the only means to achieve long range jumps via the spore drive. An injection of the tardigrade's DNA into Stamet's blood stream allowed him to fill in for the creature.
• The tardigrade was possibly sentient, and definitely in distress. Beyond the ethical considerations of using such a creature in a manner which threatened its life, this made the creature unreliable in its role as an essential component of a mission critical system.
• The tardigrade was poorly understood, and had displayed a considerable threat. When under attack, it made quick work of a Klingon boarding party and a Starfleet officer. Keeping it on board presented an ongoing risk.

At the time of this writing, it is unclear that Saru, in his role as acting captain, had informed the chain of command of his decision to order Burnham to release the tardigrade. There are, however, arguments to support this decision.

• The tardigrade was no longer the only means to achieve long range jumps via the spore drive. An injection of the tardigrade's DNA into Stamet's blood stream allowed him to fill in for the creature.
• The tardigrade was possibly sentient, and definitely in distress. Beyond the ethical considerations of using such a creature in a manner which threatened its life, this made the creature unreliable in its role as an essential component of a mission critical system.
• The tardigrade was poorly understood, and had displayed a considerable threat. When under attack, it made quick work of a Klingon boarding party and a Starfleet officer. Keeping it on board presented an ongoing risk.