The New Zealand fur seal was nearly hunted to extinction in the early 1800s. By Laura MillsThe Department of Conservation had to shoot a fur seal pup after someone put it on the back of a motorbike while skylarking on the Hokitika beach and then dumped it away from its mother. Normally when a pup was on the beach, the mother would be foraging at sea and would soon return. Ms Luecht went to locate the pup, which a "lovely Australian family was standing guard" over. However, in this case they did not know where the pup had been snatched from so they could not return it.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 04, 2016 05:15 UTC