A lot of pest and dangerous animals to man or livestock were eliminated or nearly elimated by our ancestors because we were populating in greater numbers.
It’s silly of the enviro and animal rights people to think they can bring back all those species and live in harmony with man.
Most of that type live in cities anyway and don’t have the slightest idea what it’s like to have to put up with them on a daily basis.
Gunshots may not have killed sea lions
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By ERIK ROBINSON Columbian Staff Writer
The mystery is thickening in the deaths of six sea lions over the weekend near Bonneville Dam, with federal authorities reporting this morning that a preliminary examination of the bodies “found no evidence of recent gunshot wounds.”
Although authorities initially suspected the animals died due to gunshot wounds, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported today that the cause of death remains unknown.
“We are assuming nothing at this point,” said Brian Gorman, a NMFS spokesman in Seattle. “We don’t have a working hypothesis, but we’ll come up with one and we’ll pursue it and try to find a cause of these deaths. It’s a mystery right now.”
The examination identified numerous shallow puncture wounds in one of the six animals that are consistent with sea lion bite marks.
The agency reported that X-ray examinations late Tuesday conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., revealed that there was metal fragments in soft tissue around the neck area of two of the six dead animals. A metal slug was found in the blubber of one animal.
However, Gorman said, those fragments did not appear to cause the animals’ deaths.
“It’s not uncommon to find an animal with some indication from its previous history that it’s been shot,” he said. “These were old wounds.”
Anyone with information that may assist in the investigation should call the NMFS enforcement hotline at 800-853-1964.
The animals died in floating docks set up by state authorities to trap and relocate sea lions that had been eating a growing proportion of Endangered Species Act-protected salmon below Bonneville Dam. A pair of trap doors had been triggered, raising the possibility that someone manually closed the doors as the animals lounged on a side-by-side pair of floating docks.
“There are two big questions: How did the animals die, and how did the gates get closed?” Gorman said today.
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/05/05072008_Gunshots-may-not-have-killed-sea-lions.cfm