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SIX BABY SEALS have been found decapitated in New Zealand in what wildlife rangers today branded a “cruel and senseless” act against a protected species.
The bodies of the New Zealand fur seal pups were found by a tourism operator on Monday at Scenery Nook near the South Island city of Christchurch, the Department of Conservation said.
The department’s local operations manager Andy Thompson said the animals, which are protected under New Zealand law, were estimated to be 11 months old.
“Due to the disturbing, brutal and violent nature of this crime… it has been reported to the police,” he said.
Thompson said the seals’ heads were nowhere to be found and it appeared they had been killed elsewhere then dumped in the beauty spot from a boat.
“We believe it’s incredibly unlikely sharks would have bitten the heads off six seals but left the bodies untouched,” he said.
Thompson added the killers may have mistakenly believed the seals were competing with local anglers for fish.
“Regrettably, antagonism towards seals is often due to the misplaced belief that seals are eating large amounts of fish species valued for human consumption,” he said.
“That isn’t the case. Research shows 90% of Banks Peninsula fur seal diet is made up of lantern fish which are not sought after in fishing.”
The DOC has appealed for information about the killings.
In 2011, a South Island teenager was jailed for two years after he admitted to bludgeoning 25 seals to death, including newborn pups.
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Years ago the west laughed at China, considering them as backward peasants. Today the tide has turned and China is a great nation, a strong economy and a world leader in innovation .
@Just Me: More like a world leader in intellectual property theft.
This should be the answer to deforestation. Shame it’ll be so much easier to burn or chop down acres of rain forest for decades to come. I suggest the Brazilians go take a peek in Shanghai soon.
By some distance, the most impressive city in the world…
@Johnny Maloney: your joking right? Overpopulated and over polluted in mind boggaling extreme it’s mass of humanity that every city should strive to avoid .Technological feats aside as i couldn’t stand the place.
@Brian: trying to decipher your spelling/grammar gave me a headache.
@Johnny Maloney: from twenty foot away. That’s what we used say. When you get closer you can see all the holes. I’m sure it’s changed much in ten years and more since saw her last. Wo ai Sharnghai.
Is this an excuse for the city smog, have all the plants under glass? Why not parks and cut air pollution.
You sure that not a marajua grow house?
And they’ll do it an all. In about three months. No probs with planning objectors there. Nor unions nor that. Anyway it’ll all be fertilized from the privies of Shanghai which is pretty neat recycling but the prawn farms on the aptly named Huang Pu river you can take a trip from the Bund downriver past miles of rusting warehouses and there they all are with a massive shit pipe pouring the city’s effluent out on top of the cages quite put me off but then I realized prawns are shit-filters that’s what they do and then thought it quite green though not as green as my face. The most unfortunate job I’ve ever seen bestowed on a man was the job of the poor fella on the shit collecting tricycle. More dawn walks I had would see him and his fellows in their blue uniforms cycling these ancient three wheeled High Nellys with two 45 gallon drums up on the back filled to the brim from the output of 23 million ars es you could smell him before you saw him and it was all on route to the vegetable farms of Pudong there to be sprayed on the veggies which grew huge and ripe but you had to wash them with special stuff to get rid of a type of human fluke that can do murder on your liver. Anyway hope this works out for them. Zhù nǐ hǎo yùn
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