Putting the 'Cute' Back in Execute

Captured sea lions on Columbia River assassinated

Posted at 7:00 AM on 05 May 2008

Six salmon-eating sea lions captured on the Columbia River in the U.S. Northwest were shot and killed over the weekend near the Bonneville Dam by an unknown assailant. A few weeks ago, the federal government itself announced it would allow wildlife officials in Oregon and Washington to kill up to 85 sea lions a year in the Bonneville area since they were eating large quantities of imperiled salmon. However, in response to legal action from the Humane Society, a federal appeals court temporarily halted the hunt in favor of a plan to humanely capture them and cart them off to zoos and marine parks. A hearing on May 8 will determine whether state wildlife officials will be allowed to cull Bonneville sea lions instead of trapping them. Meanwhile, sea lion trapping in the area is being suspended during the investigation of the rogue killings.

source: Associated Press

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Comments: (13 comments)

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"rule of law"

This vigilante execution is a kind of linching, actually, and not all that surprising. Yes, we do indeed observe the rule of law most of the time in this country, but when aggrieved citizens feel that the law does not succeed as an instrument of justice, they take justice into their own hands. It has happened countless times in US history, when prisoners are not safe in jail from the hands of angered mobs. Remember that frightening night-time scene in "To Kill a Mockingbird," when Gregory Peck keeps vigil outside the jail, and is able to dissuade the linch mob from seizing his client being held inside.

It would be especially troubling if the shootings of the three elephant seals in California were done by the same gunman who shot the six sea lions at the Bonneville Dam.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:29 AM on 05 May 2008

Lynching? Linching?

Oh well... I agree with you, Canis, anyway... I read a book the other day which I think you'd like: Lapham Rising by Roger Rosenblatt. It has an strong/depressing environmental message about consumption and excess (set in the Hamptons)but also the narrator of the tale has a little dog, a Westie, and talks to him (and the dog talks back most amusingly).
Karen

An ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand tons of big talk. -Vivekananda

by karenc at 3:31 PM on 05 May 2008

why kill a sea lion

The sea lions died so that the salmon might survive. In this case I agree with the execution, not because we should kill off the sea lions but because we also need to protect salmon population.

What do you think about the seal clubbing industry in Canada as a form of population control?

by gohuskies at 4:02 PM on 05 May 2008

Yes, "lynching."

Sorry, Karen. Thanks for the recommendation of Roger Rosenblatt's book. Every now and then, he reads an essay on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; and I like very much what he has to say, but he is not the best person to read aloud.

GoHuskies,
killing is never the answer. And in this case, what with all the self-centered anthropocentric alterations to the ecosystems of the PacNW rivers that human beings are responsible for, why in the world should sea lions pay with their lives for the current low numbers of salmon?

That human beings should be justified in murdering sea lions, so that there will be a few more salmon left to them to murder, strikes me as a pretty hellish bit of ethical reasoning.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 5:10 PM on 05 May 2008

Seals just wanna have fun

http://clubinbabyseals.ytmnd.com/

But seriously, not cool.

by GreenNPR at 10:23 PM on 05 May 2008

cute, Green NPR

Videos like that help to remind us that many of Grist/Gristmill's readers are young noncommitted kids still negotiating their sexual where-abouts, more fundamentally and immediately and urgently than their figuring out all this environmentalist stuff ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:08 AM on 06 May 2008

Turns against 'em...

...if this was "retribution" on behalf of "salmon lovers", then it's backfired. Now not only will they not kill the sea lions, but they've also suspended all trappin' as well.

The (remaining) lions will stay at the dam.

by Tasermons Partner at 12:52 AM on 06 May 2008

"Negotiating their sexual whereabouts."

Interesting way of putting it. Personally, I prefer the term "chasing nookie." :)

(Actually, other than maybe chanting along with that Limp Bizkit song, I think that's the first time I've ever used the term "nookie." But that has nothing to do with anything.)

gohuskies... I occasionally disagree with caniscandida's adamant philosophical position that killing is never the answer. That said, in the case of the Bonneville sea lions, killing is most definitely not the answer. And in the case of the six that were killed this weekend, killing not only wasn't the answer, it was freaking stupid.

This wasn't a benevolent act to save the salmon; these sea lions had already been captured and were going to be relocated. It wasn't any kind of political statement--though I suppose it's possible the shooter was feeding himself that excuse. The truth is, it was some psychotic asshole or group of psychotic assholes getting their jollies by killing innocent animals who weren't even free to run away from them.

If they manage to catch these people, then I might say killing is the answer. But that won't happen, and sadly, the shooters will probably never be caught.

by Pathos at 6:24 AM on 06 May 2008

"whereabouts"; "the answer"

Pathos, dear cougar-bait,
I do not know whom I was channeling, Emily Dickinson perhaps, nor do I know under whose supernatural influence I was placed, such that I put that fussy little hyphen in "where-abouts." Writing it as one uninterrupted word, as you do, is so much more satisfying.

But you take my meaning well enough: All these pretty young things in the Gristmill community are seriously carrying on about serious subjects like GW mitigation and energy policy and biofuels, but meanwhile, really, they are thinking about sex. So the club music with the clubbable seals is quite appropriate, however tasteless we may find it.

As for what "the answer" means in my gnomic assertion, "Killing is never the answer": Sometimes, killing is the only practical solution, as with white-tailed deer whose numbers are excessive in Midwestern and Northeastern forests. But that does not make killing the deer "the answer." When killing is the only practical solution, then that means that we have failed, grievously, somewhere down the chain of causes. And in cases like that, when the killing is carried out, we inflict a moral wound on ourselves. Killing, being never the answer, can never be dismissed easily, as if it were business-as-usual.

Waging war belongs in this context too. So does capital punishment. The greater the ease with which we justify our several acts of killing, the more deeply implicated we are in creating this hideously disappointing world of ours.

It should be noted, in the case of the wildlife agents by the Bonneville Dam, that they seem sincerely reluctant to deliver the sea lions to death. They will do as they are told, apparently; but, according to what the press reports, they themselves do not at all want to kill the sea lions, or see them die, and hope that everyone will be satisfied if only the sea lions can be transported humanely and alive to another location.

God bless them! And may their prayer be answered.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 7:51 AM on 06 May 2008

Martyrs

It seems these martyred sea lions might save the rest? it seems that way with a lot of wildlife issues. They are running wolves and coyotes to death with helicopters and snowmobles again in the west right now.

One or two videos of that torture would move policy more than any lobbyist can! I hope eco-activists are making this happen, youtube awaits!

It's all about sex Canis and Pathos. Why is that? Hehey.

The meaning of life? Unfathomable. But I know what I like! Going to watch the fish run in the spring rushing river tonight! Pure natural sex!!! Yippee!

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 8:14 AM on 06 May 2008

fundi

caniscandida, your criticism is well taken and I apologize for my immature post. Maybe it was those raging hormones ;)

I've always been committed to deep ecology and I see the deeper root of the problem is habitat encroachment by us humans and by our unsustainable practices that put a strain on these ecosystems.

by GreenNPR at 9:20 AM on 06 May 2008

As I said

I have posted before that the seal are not the problem it is the human encroachment,in the form of dams,that is the problem.We make it almost impossible for the salmon to mate and lay eggs,for the next generation.Then we want to kill a few seals that should not even be able to make a dent in the numbers of salmon that should be in that area in the first place.Makes no sense to me.
The boneheads who shot the seals are just plain ignorant,and their trigger fingers should be amputated,to save the seals.We may see more of this kind of behavior due to total frustration with how this country is operating.Politicians who don't give squat what the electorate want.Big Business that does as it pleases with no regard to working people.Religion that is more concerned with their power base and money than with helping people cope with life,fairly.

Why not ask why!?

by usandthem at 1:21 PM on 06 May 2008

Culprits Likely Fishermen

I've had experience with commercial fishermen complaining about seals and sea lions for decades. Their attitude, as once told to me when I worked for Greenpeace, is that they hate seals and sea lions because those animals steal "their" fish. (I was actually able to change that guy's mind and get a donation, but you get the idea.)

Now, three elephant seals were found shot to death near San Simeon, which is on the coast about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. See http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9167464?nclick_check=1 ... It seems very likely that the current killings of these animals were perpetrated by angry fishermen.

by Wolverine at 4:48 PM on 06 May 2008

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