SAN PEDRO, CA — A sea lion is well on his way to recovery today thanks to the help of a longshoreman who found the sickened mammal collapsed on a Los Angeles street fending for himself amidst the truck traffic heading in and out of the Port of Los Angeles.
Carlos Gutierrez was getting off work when he saw the creature struggling along the hot blacktop Monday afternoon as a heat wave descended on Los Angeles. He could tell something was wrong immediately.
“I saw him and thought, ‘Oh, that’s not happening,’ ” Gutierrez, told the Daily Breeze. “So I stopped my car.”
The sea lion had likely dragged itself to shore when it became too sick to fend for itself at sea. But after just a few days with antibiotics and nutritional supplements, the sea lion is remarkably improved.
On Wednesday, Gutierrez visited the little guy he helped save.
“He looks great, he looks good,” Gutierrez told the Daily Breeze.