One animal rescuer said this is the second seal she has seen in Hood Canal with a gunshot wound since November.<\/p>\n
QUILCENE, Wash. \u2014 A harbor seal found suffering on a dock near Quilcene Bay on Hood Canal last week was discovered to have been shot in the face, according to rescuers. The discovery prompted an animal cruelty investigation by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The injured seal was rushed to SR3 in Des Moines, where X-rays revealed a bullet wound as the animal continues to receive treatment.<\/p>\n
People who work near the marina first noticed the seal Thursday morning, saying the area is normally a hotspot for harbor seal sightings. But when they noticed one seal suffering and unwilling to move, they called animal rescue professionals.<\/p>\n
Sara Penhallegon, founder and director of Central Valley Animal Rescue, said the seal’s appearance and behavior quickly raised concerns. \u201cIt had been here for hours which wasn\u2019t normal\u2026 and so they took photos and they sent them in and we assessed that there was a big problem,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cA normal seal would\u2019ve just jumped back into the water if we were this close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penhallegon noticed visible signs of illness. \u201cIt had a lot of nasal discharge and an infection going on of some sort,\u201d she said. Her team moved quickly to capture and transport the seal. \u201cOnce I was able to get around to the backside of it, I just shoved it into the crate\u2026 carried the crate up and put it in the back of my Suburban,\u201d she said, noting the animal was underweight.<\/p>\n
She was then transported to Sealife Response, Rehab, and Research in Des Moines, where veterinarians conducted radiographs that revealed the cause of the seal\u2019s injuries. \u201cI did not know that this was a gunshot victim until they did some radiographs,\u201d Penhalle\u00adgon said.<\/p>\n
She called the shooting \u201ca cruel thing to do,\u201d adding, \u201cWhether or not you\u2019re a fisherman and you don\u2019t like seals because they\u2019re competing with you for food, it\u2019s not the way to deal with this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penhalle\u00adgon said it\u2019s the second seal with a bullet wound she has seen in four months, including another rescue in Port Ludlow that did not survive. The seal rescued on Thursday, however, remains alive and under care.<\/p>\n
If you ever witness something similar, Penhallegon urges you to always report it.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019d be wonderful if we could catch the people that do this,” said Penhallegon. “Law enforcement does have all this information.\u201d<\/p>\n
State wildlife officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding the cruelty.<\/p>\n
Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, all seals and other marine mammals are protected by federal law, making it illegal to “harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One animal rescuer said this is the second seal she has seen in Hood Canal with a gunshot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-487693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}