A Massey University
lecturer says it is “unlikely” a group of seals could have all been
rendered unconscious in one blow and would have likely felt pain before
they died.
The evidence was heard at a trial
for Jemaal Peter Roy Large, a 38-year-old Marlborough man, who is
accused of killing 23 protected seals using a galvanised pipe at Ohau
Point, near Kaikoura on November 26, 2010. Fifteen were adult males or
female and eight were pups, some of which were days old.
The
seals were bashed to death with the pipes under the cover of darkness.
Large and co-accused Jason Trevor Godsiff used headlamps and metal pipes
to kill the seals on their way back to Marlborough from Canterbury. At
the time, Large told police he believed killing the seals was like
killing rabbits or possums.
He argues he should not be charged for their deaths because he was legally hunting them.
The trial before Judge Peter Hobbs began in the Nelson District Court today and is set down for three days.
Dr
Stuart Hunter, a lecturer of wildlife health told the court he found it
“difficult to believe” a person could knock out all 15 of the adult
seals with one blow.
“Some seals would have to have multiple blows to render them unconscious.”
He
says if a seal was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head and
subsequently died it would not feel any pain. However, if it was still
moving it would feel some degree of pain or distress.
“The
fact the seal was still moving indicates there’s a level of
consciousness and if an animal is conscious it can feel pain or
suffering.”
“The brain starts to swell after an injury. It’s painful, disorientating.”
It is not possible to knock out a bull in one blow because they can weigh up to 150kgs, he says.
Seals’ heads ‘pulverised’
Earlier
today, a Department of Conservation ranger recounted the day he found
the fur seals whose heads were “completely pulverised” by metal pipes.
Michael
Morrissey, a DOC worker for 46 years, says he and a group of other
workers found the dead seals while conducting research at Ohau Point on
December 1.
The group noticed the first dead
male which Mr Morrissey says was “out of the ordinary”, but continued
their work because they did not want to scare the other seals away.
However, during processing
of the live seals Mr Morrissey went back to the first seal to check its
injuries. He found the skull had been smashed on both sides which would
have needed at least two blows to create.
He
stopped checking the seals’ injuries after the body count reached 12,
because it was “quite easy to see the heads were quite mushy” indicating
their skulls had been crushed.
When asked by
defence counsel David Clark what he would do if euthanising a seal with a
.22 rifle, it remained alive, Mr Morrissey said he would shoot it again
immediately to make sure it was dead.
And while
he had experience with seals injured by cars or shot, Mr Morrissey had
not seen seals which had been clubbed to death before the incident.
Mr
Morrissey says the seals would be quiet at night and is possible to
“walk right up to them and around them and they generally just stay
there”.
DOC conservation services manager Phil Bradfield was with Mr Morrissey when they discovered the dead seals.
He noticed two injured bulls and believes they had been hit with the same weapon which killed the 23 other seals.
“In
those large colonies bulls fight so they have injuries consistent with
fighting, but one had an eye hanging out of its socket. I’d find it hard
to believe that had been caused by fighting.”
Law to be reviewed
Large
was originally charged with wilfully ill-treating 23 seals by clubbing
them to death, along with co-accused Jason Trevor Godsiff, but the Crown
applied to change the charges.
Those charges
were replaced with three representative charges under the Animal Welfare
Act of killing two adult males, 13 females and eight seal pups. The
Crown needs to prove at least one of each kind of seal was ill-treated.
Large
earlier argued for the charges to be dropped in the Blenheim District
Court and the High Court because he was legally hunting the animals –
both were dismissed.
The Animal Welfare Act says
nothing in the Act “makes it unlawful to hunt or kill” any animal in a
wild state or any wild animal or pest. An amendment to the Act is
currently before Parliament and passed its first reading last week. The
proposed change is partly a response to this case and further defines
what ill-treatment of a wild animal means.
The seals became a protected species in 1978.
Godsiff
was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting the killings in
2011, but the sentenced was reduced to eight months’ home detention on
appeal.
The trial continues.
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