Local happenings

PEI Seal Pup Deaths

I don't know that anyone actually reads this blog, but I figured I'd post this article anyway. Basically, some classmates and friends of mine came across a bunch of grey seal pups on the coast last weekend. They decided to come back the next day to photograph them because how freaking cute are baby seals?!

Imagine how they felt when they returned literally the next morning to find upwards of 50 of the pups dead. Not only dead, but killed; many of the pups were still alive (and suffering) upon discovery. The seal pups were sent to the Atlantic Veterinary College for necropsy by none other than one of my pathology professors, Dr. Daoust! What he discovered was that the seals had been killed by blunt force trauma (smashed up skulls, essentially). Pretty much someone(s) were out there whacking a bunch of helpless, adorable seal babies.

The community is pretty outraged, if the comments from the CBC articles are any measure. But fishing is just another form of agriculture up here, a way of life for a lot of people. They feel that the seals threaten their fish populations, driving down the supply and limiting the money they can make. Which is a real concern for these people, sure, aside from the possibility that they themselves are over-fishing and reducing the ability of the fish to thrive and continue to be at a reasonable density for fishing. But seriously, who decides the solution to that problem is to bludgeon a bunch of babies to death or near enough? I could go on and on about the sheer brutality of that sort of thing, but I won't. Just figured I'd make any passers-by of this blog aware of what's going on in my little corner of Canada, sad as it is.

$1,000 reward to information leading to a conviction, though. At least there's some incentive.