Dear editor,
Just when I think the world cannot get any weirder something comes along and I can only give my shiny old head a shake.
Orcas are a magnificent creature. Anyone who has seen them cavorting in the ocean can only marvel at their beauty and grace. Yet these mammals are in dire straits (no pun intended) primarily from lack of their preferred food—salmon. And what is their major competitor for this staple? Seals in the hundreds waiting at the estuaries and river mouths.
Recently in the paper was the report of a blind seal pup rescued by MARS. What if the good people in that commendable organization had not picked it up? It would have been carried out on the next high tide, died at sea and possibly entered the belly of an orca. As nature would decree. But, now it was flown at expense to a rehab centre and for what end? Blind, it has no chance for release into the wild as many of the animals under the loving care of MARS are destined. It can only be kept in an artificial environment for the rest of its unnatural life. I cannot balance this act with the plight of the orca’s. This reminds me of the kerfuffle surrounding the plague of feral rabbits at UVic. Hundreds were captured, neutered and shipped via jet cargo plane to somewhere in Texas, I believe. Why?
I am not advocating indifference to our co-inhabitants on this spinning globe, but only that a bit of reason and logic prevail. Call me callous, but as long as we have people sleeping in cardboard shelters, as long as we continue to need the services of a Food Bank and the Care-A-Van, as long as churches and other philanthropic groups have to ensure children have a nutritious breakfast to start their school day, I am incapable of allocating scant resources on a blind seal pup.
Harold Macy
Merville