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GARDAÍ ARE CONTINUING to investigate after the discovery of the heads of two young seals were found nailed to the entrance of a seal sanctuary in Dingle last week.
The incident has resulted in two organisations – ARAN and Sea Shephard – offering a total of €7,000 in rewards for any information about who may have carried out the act, while it’s also garnered worldwide media attention.
Staff at the Dingle Wildlife and Seal Sanctuary in Co. Kerry made the gruesome discovery last Thursday morning when they arrived at the gates of the sanctuary and and found the heads of two seals nailed to plywood and screwed onto the wooden entrance.
Written on the signs were the messages “RIP CULL” and “RIP I AM HUNGRY”, written in red paint.
Gardaí in Dingle told TheJournal.ie that the investigation is ongoing, but they were unable to confirm if they had been made aware of names of individuals possible involved, but a post on the sanctuary’s Facebook page said:
I would like to point out that whoever is responsible (and names have been given) are a minority, and that we sincerely hope that because of their actions Dingle doesn’t suffer in lower tourism or in a fish product boycott.
The sanctuary is appealing for donations via its website and has said that it will be upgrading the security system at the facility and installing infrared cameras.
Ally McMillan from the sanctuary told TheJournal.ie last week that there are two seals currently resident there who are due to be released back into the wild within the next two weeks.
Ally McMillan. Image: DingleSanctuary.com
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Sick twisted people.
What an absolutely disgusting and pointless thing to do.
Dirty rotten despicable individuals that did this. People know who they are and if they have a conscious they’ll report them. It seems to me that these individuals are local fishermen (allegedly). There is a much better way of dealing with the problem of seals eating all the fish! than being so cruel to defenseless animals.
There are a number of seals at Howth habour for a few years, tourists and locals love them. Even the fresh fish shops sell little bags of bit of fish to people so they can feed them. They should be fined big time and that fine should go to the sanctuary!
I think what you mean is that damages should be paid to the sanctuary by the people responsible! I agree. But jail time should also be included.
Just to let you know Sheila, ask a fish shop in Howth for some off cuts for the seals and they will no longer sell it to you as they have been stopped by the fishermen there! Interesting isn’t it!!
@Sheila, The seals are not the problem
People buying fish offcuts to throw to the seals was a bad thing because it encourages the seals to approach humans and also can make them reliant on such things for their food when they should be finding it themselves.
Various wildlife groups asked that people stopped feeding the seals, so the fish mongers not selling scraps any more is not necessarily related to how they feel about seals.
It’s beyond any words that I can think of. What they did is so cruel and sick. May they all die roaring.
Anyone who could inflict such CRUELTY on an animal could as easily do so to a person, scary to think we live amongst such sickos
Can’t understand the fisherman position that seals ate depleting fish stocks. There is only one ‘master’ of the food chain capable of such a thing and that’s us!
Seals have just as much a right to fish if not more- our diet is so varied we are not depending on fish. But seals can’t go down the shop and buy some bread or ‘grow their own!’ which leads to a logical conclusion that if fish stocks are depleting then seal numbers will reduce in line with that also. I find it very hard to believe in such a time that we are in danger of completely ruining fish stocks, that seal numbers have magically boomed.
Its all the seals fault for eating there food and not the fault of over fishing
So many things wrong with your statement, least of which being the grammar.
I think you might have missed the sarcasm in Chris’s post (at least I hope it was sarcastic…)
Wow 65 people cannot not understand sarcasm – what is the world coming to.
strange to see comments deploring this brutal act getting red thumbs:(
This probably isn’t going to be popular, but the photo of Ally hugging a seal isn’t great PR for the sanctuary. Surely if the aim of the sanctuary is to rehabilitate animals to the wild then human contact should be minimal. There are various recognised ways of doing this such as feeding from behind screens etc. so the animals don’t even see humans.
Interesting that the poster on the Sanctuary’s facebook page is more concerned about the possible decline of tourists in Dingle or the boycotting of fish produce than the barbaric primitive behavior of those who did this. No mention of the cruelty or suffering caused-no just hope we won’t lose out financially by all this attention-
I agree Brenda, that actually repulsed me, that the generation if money was the main concern. I mean get the priorities straight!
Well, I think that was part of the aim of the criminals.
If they reduce tourism to the area, they reduce the funding going into the sanctuary thus reducing the numbers of seals being rescued and released.
I’m sure they believe it’s a sick act aswell.
Brenda, that post is coming from dwss itself, i wrote there the other day that yes it was disgusting and deplorable but bycotting the fish caught here, or affecting the tourist trade is helping no-one….we are a town heavily reliant on both!!!!
Everyone that I have met around is just as horrified and disgusted as everyone else
I did not realise that the sanctuary itself made the post-the article did not mention that – I understand why they did made this post though. I am sorry for the decent people of Dingle who have to suffer a slur on their reputation because of a few ignorant thugs. If you google this event you will see that it is being reported worldwide
Two more seals were shot in Cork yesterday. I understand that the seal sanctuary has to maintain a positive relationship with the fishing community and I would hope the vast majority of that community are not of the same mindset as the perpetrators. But let’s not kid ourselves as to the motive behind this deplorable crime. The very words “cull” and “hungry” give it away. This type of thing makes me despair for the future of our planet…bloody-minded, greedy short-sightedness.
That’s just sick! Those bastards should have the same done to them!
These people in the sanctuary get paid for looking after 2 seals?
Let’s see about that.
@Leo Varad, as far as we’re aware all of the staff are volunteers. They also house other wildlife.
Emer
Silly troll ‘Leo’!
the sanctury has a wide range of wildlife to be cared for, and all the staff are volunters the last time i was at the sanctury 15 seals were being rehabilated
they also recoup money by charging an entrance fee…well worth a visit though :)
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