A large seal found on a Western Victoria dairy farm has been euthanised after a wildlife assessment determined the elderly mammal could no longer "forage and live naturally in the wild".
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Melbourne Zoo marine and veterinary teams and Parks Victoria wildlife authorities attended the farm on Thursday afternoon to assess and determine the next steps in the care of the seal.
Head veterinarian Michael Lynch said Melbourne Zoo was contacted after the large adult Australian fur seal "failed to find a way back to the open ocean along the same path it used to arrive at the farm".
The large wayward seal attracted national attention as it made itself at home at the Simpson dairy farm, 30-minutes away from the nearest beach on Sunday.
Dr Lynch said on assessment the seal was "found to be elderly, and suffering from blindness in one eye and dental fractures".
"It was determined that euthanasia was the kindest welfare outcome as the seal would have been unable to forage and live naturally in the wild," Dr Lynch said.
He said a necropsy would be conducted in the coming days.
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The farm owners, Karli and Brad McGee, were shocked to spot the seal in a paddock in the inland rural bush setting on Sunday.
Mrs McGee said the male seal had moved to neighbouring properties, including her parents farm, through paddocks, creeks and laneways, usually reserved for dairy cows.
She said the seal had travelled about four kilometres on land, across the length their 400-acre property and her dad's neighbouring farm, since his arrival.
"He travelled from one side (of our farm) to the other and then yesterday he travelled across my dad's whole farm and went over the back of his farm and gone in the back," Mrs McGee said. "He's gone on grass he's not even going through creeks, he's going inland," she said at the time.
