And It's Not Just the Shooting of People That Is A Problem

Anyone here want to bet that the shootists who do these probably don't think of themselves as criminals.  They might even think of themselves as law abiding, because they don't take this crime seriously.

Just as it is people with guns in our parks who did the damage to those very old, very valuable saguaro cacti, another crime that harms all of us, in an article posted here.  It is precisely the gun culture of our country which engages in these kinds of shootings, as well as the frequent shooting of people, which correctly characterizes our gun culture as trigger happy violence pursuing uncivilized people falsely throwing around the words rights, and freedom.

Whoever is doing these shootings should not only spend time behind bars, they should lose their guns and the ability to own or shoot guns.

From MSNBC.com and the AP last month:

Reports of sea lion shootings on rise in Calif.

The NOAA said there were 43 reported marine mammal shootings in 2009 — nine more than in 2008

By JASON DEAREN
updated 1/2/2011 11:58:39 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO — The weak and woozy California sea lion found on a San Francisco Bay-area beach in December with buckshot embedded in its skull has become an all-too-common sight for wildlife officials.

Wildlife officials have seen a slight rise in the shooting of ocean mammals in recent years, and investigators often struggle to find a culprit. There are few witnesses to such shootings, making it nearly impossible to bring a case.

"We always try to do an investigation, but unless there's an eyewitness to the shooting it's hard to make a case for our enforcement folks," said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tracks reports of the shootings.

The NOAA said there were 43 reported marine mammal shootings in 2009 — nine more than in 2008 and 14 more than five years earlier. Of the reported shootings in 2009, all were sea lions. And officials say many more cases likely go unreported.
Wildlife officials say sea lion and human populations continue to increase, making interaction more common, especially among fishermen who compete for the same food and often view the creatures as a nuisance.
Though NOAA and the California Department of Fish and Game are responsible for investigating these cases, few cases result in prosecution. Recent public outcry over highly publicized cases like that of the wounded sea lion near San Francisco have brought more attention to these shootings.
Veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center in Suasalito are treating the wounded critter in the hope an aquarium or zoo will take it. The 7-foot-long male, dubbed Silent Knight by its rescuers, is now blind and cannot return to the wild.
When there is a witness, there usually is a case. A witness came forward after the 2009 shooting of a 650-pound sea lion nicknamed Sgt. Nevis was covered by local press and television.
Larry Legans of Sacramento was ordered to pay more than $51,000 in restitution for the cost of treating the critter, who recently underwent plastic surgery at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom to close bullet holes in its muzzle. Legas also spent a month in jail and got five years probation.
Lt. Rob Roberts, a warden with state Fish and Game Department, said the agency takes marine mammal shootings very seriously, and noted that reports have increased in kind with the growth of the sea lion population along the Northern California coast.
Roberts hopes successful prosecutions and intense media coverage of cases like Legans' will help.
"If the general public sees that there's recourse and accountability, that's a deterrent," Roberts said.
The Marine Mammal Center, where Silent Knight is being treated along with hundreds of ocean animals suffering a variety of ailments, has treated nine gunshot victims in 2010. The center treated 18 in 2009, down from a high of 72 sea lions in 1992, when the center started keeping statistics.
While the number of mammals treated for gunfire wounds has trended downward at the center over the decades, in recent years it has begun to creep back the other way, statistics show.
On Monday, more than 400 people came to see Silent Knight during the center's visiting hours, fascinated by the plight of the wounded pinniped, said Jeff Boehm, the center's executive director.
The center tries to help wardens in the investigations by determining the kind of weapon that were used and how long an animal has been wounded. For now, the center will work to try and get Silent Knight healthy, and ready to live in captivity.
"We've seen over 1,000 patients in 2010, and of that number only nine were shooting victims, a small fraction," said Boehm, whose center studies and treats animals that have been injured by fishing nets, disease or environmental hazards like pollution.
"But it's dramatic, because (shootings) are entirely unnecessary situations."

 and this one from BBC News:

Sea lions found shot on Puget Sound, US officials say

Fishermen regard sea lions as pests because they prey on salmon

 

Eight sea lions have been found shot dead in the US state of Washington in the past few weeks, wildlife officials have told a local TV station.

The bodies of seven sea lions with bullet wounds were recently found on the Nisqually River, KING-TV reports.
An eighth sea lion was found dead in West Seattle on 23 January. The Seal Sitters conservation group said it, too, had been shot.
Fishermen regard sea lions as pests because they prey on salmon.
The Seal Sitters say the eighth dead animal was a California sea lion, a mature male. The species is protected under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"Evidence of a 'penetrating' wound, suspected to be that of a bullet, was found deep in the tissue and tracked back to the entrance wound," the Seal Sitters said on their blog.
The sea lion's remains were analysed by a biologist from the Washington Department of fish and wildlife.
The examination also revealed a wound from a shark bite and the sea lion's intestines were twisted, the Seal Sitters said.
One of the animals found on the Nisqually River was a Steller sea lion, protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Both the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are investigating the deaths, KING-TV reports.
"California sea lions are sometimes viewed as a nuisance by commercial fishermen and there are records of stranded sea lions with gunshot wounds and other human-caused injuries," the NOAA says on its website.