An injured Sea Lion was picked up on a Sausalito beach Wednesday night, where he was found with his right eye missing, his left eye swollen shut and shotgun pellets lodged inside his head. Marine Mammal Center Vets treating the poor creature, which they've named Silent Knight because of his "regal bearing", said they see about ten sea lions a year with gunshot injuries and many more likely go unnoticed and untreated.

Silent Knight's shooter is still at large and will probably stay that way, but in related sea lion justice KTVU points out that last year "a Sacramento man spent a month in jail and was fined $50,000 for shooting a sea lion that stole his fish." Meanwhile, it's too early to tell if Silent Knight will be permanently blinded, but Vets expect him to pull through and mention that blindness is not necessarily a life threatening condition to sea lions in the wild.

[KTVU]