When Humans are Gone, Who’ll be Around to Brand the Sea Lions?
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Jim Robertson, Exposing the Big Game
April 2014

ACTION ALERT: End the “Lethal Take” of Columbia River Sea Lions

What you don’t hear them say is that sea lions have been eating salmon for 50 million years, ever since they left the land and evolved back into sea creatures. For the ensuing millennia, everyone got along just fine—until humans came by to screw things up.

First, the humans strung nets and placed weirs out into the salmon’s migration path. Next they built canneries along the Columbia River; and while some were busy killing off the salmon in droves, sealers murdered all the seals and sea lions they could find to fuel the booming, psychotic fur trade. Other sea lions were rendered into oil by the equally-debased whaling industry.

The hot iron is something right out of the Inquisition era. But while the Spanish Inquisition was a necessary evil to prevent heresy and extract confessions from witches, branding sea lions serves no real purpose. Oh sure, the modern day inquisitors will argue that the tortuous process helps them decide which individual sea lions are most responsible for eating salmon at the dam upriver.

What you don’t hear them say is that sea lions have been eating salmon for 50 million years, ever since they left the land and evolved back into sea creatures. For the ensuing millennia, everyone got along just fine—until humans came by to screw things up.

First, the humans strung nets and placed weirs out into the salmon’s migration path. Next they built canneries along the Columbia River; and while some were busy killing off the salmon in droves, sealers murdered all the seals and sea lions they could find to fuel the booming, psychotic fur trade. Other sea lions were rendered into oil by the equally-debased whaling industry.

The many dams built along the river were the coup de grace for any salmon still surviving the ever-advancing human onslaught. Not only do spawning salmon have to make it up past the massive new impediments, but warmer water behind the manmade reservoirs is hard on the young fish fry. And then there was the threat of the dam turbines…

Now, when a few sea lions are seen eating fish—as they’ve always done—they’re practically burned at the stake.

Image from Jim Robertson, Animals in the Wild

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