The body in the cove: a dilemma

Walking home from town along the coast path, a distance of 2-3 miles, as I passed this little cove I noticed two herring gulls lifting off from the shingle beach - curious, I looked down and saw a gruesome sight. A dead seal had been washed ashore very recently and its carcase was lying there, the upper part freshly flayed and picked to the bone by the birds. The gory skull and ribcage protruded from the intact lower half of the body like a corpse emerging from a sleeping bag. It's not unusual to see seals off the coast here but I don't think I've ever found a dead one before.

I took some pictures and then dragged the body up the beach and covered it with heavy stones, hoping to recover the skull at a later date if the sea did not reclaim it. I never intended to blip the dead seal but both Guinea Pig Zero and my sons have strongly urged me to do so, on the basis that it's an unusual sight which makes a powerful impact. Now, I'm not squeamish in the least but I know many people are. What is more I have in recent days become aware of a number of blippers who are dealing with difficult times: illness, loss and grief, anxieties and uncertainties both for themselves and within their families. I don't want to cause additional distress so as a compromise I have put the dead seal here in my blipfolio so that everybody can make a choice as to whether to look or not.

I know that there's a great deal of sentimentality around animals. While I'm deeply attached to my pets, and I regret the untimely death of a healthy wild animal, I also find such an occurrence too interesting to pass up. To be able to scrutinize the seal's anatomy at close quarters, to speculate on the cause of its demise and to watch the process by which it becomes nourishment for other species - this is a rare and valuable opportunities to witness the cycle of life and death in the raw.

What do others think about my dilemma?

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