May 22, 2017
Michael Fujiwara/YouTube
Sea lion pulls girl from pier in Richmond, British Columbia.
Wild animals are cute, right? It's a real privilege to see them up close and personal. What on earth could go wrong?
A whole lot—especially if you're (1) a little kid and (2) sitting carefree on the edge of a pier.
In what is sure to become one of the year's best viral videos, a Vancouver-area girl who was feeding a sea lion at the waterfront got chomped and pulled right into the blue when she wasn't looking. A man immediately jumped in after her and managed to bring her to safety.
Andrew Trites, director of the University of British Columbia's Marine Mammal Research Unit, told the CBC he felt the whole scenario showed bad judgement and was in violation of a regulation not to disturb a marine mammal.
"My first reaction to the video is just how stupid some people can be to not treat wildlife with proper respect," he said. "This was a male California sea lion. They are huge animals. They are not circus performers. They're not trained to be next to people."
Fortunately, the child got away unscathed and Twitter got a chance to laugh about it.
