Sunday night on the Channel 5 “Eleven O’Clock News,” we were told the heartbreaking story of a severely injured sea lion suffering all through the night on a pier at Fisherman’s Wharf.

Concerned passersby kept trying to reach the Marine Mammal Center by phone Sunday afternoon. Several hours later, a volunteer from the Marine Mammal Center showed up and announced that the sea lion was probably in a lot of pain, but that there was nothing he could do until the next morning (Monday).

The sea lion’s neck was sliced, and he was in agony through the night because we do not have a wildlife rescue center here within San Francisco city limits.

With the loss of thousands of wild birds and mammals as a result of the recent oil spill, and now this, the moral imperative exists for the creation of the wildlife rescue center at Lake Merced as has been proposed to, and is under consideration by, the Public Utilities Commission.

Wildlife having to wait hours or days while in agony in critical condition for transport to a rescue center hours away is indefensible for San Francisco, the city named after St. Francis.

This travesty needs to be remedied now, before another four-legged, finned or winged living being has to lie in agony through the night awaiting transport to a wildlife rescue center.

Tomasita Medál

San Francisco

Take action on oil prices

Too many American families are now paying the price for inaction by Congress. That is unacceptable. Congress can and should take immediate action to improve both our security and our economy by increasing American-based energy production — from exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the outer continental shelf to increasing American refining capacity.

Unfortunately, too many Democrats have continually obstructed any effort to step up domestic energy production — dating back to President Clinton’s veto to stop such development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which could have made available nearly 1,000,000 barrels of oil per day.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing with fire, and she and other Democrats like Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are going to get burned. How high does the price of oil need to go before the Democrats take steps to increase our oil production? $200 dollars a barrel? $400 dollars a barrel? I believe that our economy will implode at $200 dollars a barrel. Democrats are directly responsible for the current price of oil.

Charles Rotthoff

Round Rock, Texas

‘Out-of-towner’ arrests

As a receiver and reader of the Taraval police captain’s daily e-mail on street crimes and arrests, I’m always amazed by how many East Bay residents are arrested in the quiet Sunset. Other districts must have many more “out-of-towner” arrests.

Sheriff Hennessey’s press release (“Lawman voices discrimination fears,” May 6) cites a 6.7 percent San Francisco African-American population versus the 60 percent county jail prisoners that are African-American! He sees discrimination!

Should not Hennessey or someone in his office count the “out-of-town” population in S.F. county jail before issuing a press release about possible San Francisco police/ court/district attorney discrimination? Should he be able to put out bum statistics and then complain about jail unrest?

Ed Gleason

San Francisco

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