Earlier this month, the good people at the Mystic Aquarium Animal Rescue Team did the unusual, releasing three seals – two harps and one gray seal – at the same time at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown. 

The three seals, Pluto, Pandora and Curie, plopped out of their carriers and waddled down to the water to begin their normal lives in the wild.

The Mystic folks warn people to be careful when they find an injured marine mammal and to contact local police or the Mystic Center first on their 24-hour hotline, 860-527-5955, extension 107.

Rescued marine mammals come to Mystic from all over New England to be treated for illnesses or injuries before they are set free from one of Charlestown’s beaches.

They also run educational programs and also try to inform the public on the right thing to do when encountering a stranded or injuries marine mammal. If you read on, you’ll see how one guy who would like to be Rhode Island’s next governor obviously didn’t get the memo.

What not to do if you see an injured seal

Giroux is a construction contractor not a veterinarian.

Of course, he took the obligatory photo for his Facebook page, perhaps thinking this will somehow boost his chances with the voters.

Giroux is not the sharpest pencil in the pencil box.

Neighbors called the police who went to Giroux’s house to tell him to put the seal back, and contacted DEM.

By the time DEM arrived, the seal was gone. They did not find a body. DEM told WPRO that the feds are investigating since Giroux’s action was a violation of federal law.

Giroux is one of several candidates running for state office this year who have no business doing so. I regret to say that Giroux is running as a Democrat, although he is picking up some right-wing Republican support.

In this age of shrinking news coverage of real news, Giroux has been treated as if he’s a real candidate with real ideas, rather than a crank. I’ll be writing more about Giroux soon to back up my assessment of his qualifications. There’s a lot more wrong with him than just acting like an idiot with that injured seal.

This article originally ran in Progressive Charlestown, where you can see even more pictures of the seals Mystic Aquarium released in Charlestown.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras said he wants Rhode Island to have the best schools in the nation and make the Ocean State and “example for opportunity.” General Treasurer Gina Raimondo called income inequality “biggest problem facing our state” and said the social safety net is “an investment in our future” rather than an act of charity. Todd Giroux said he’d create a $1 billion commerce fund and wants to make workers’ comp available to day laborers.

But arguably the best line of the evening belonged to Clay Pell, who brought down the house when he said: “I’m a Democrat. I believe people who earn more should pay more.”

Pell was also the only one to pledge to fully fund the Open Doors plan to end homelessness in Rhode Island. He may have laid out the most progressive messaging of the evening, but also drew sharp attention to his privileged upbringing when he said, “for too long in Rhode Island it’s been who you know not what you know.” Minutes earlier in his opening remarks, he name dropped his grandfather and namesake’s signature college aid grant program.

Taveras leaned heavily on his biography, at least twice recalling his formative years living in affordable housing and being a “Headstart baby.” Substantively, he said Rhode Island could boast the best education system in the country, and that he wants to make Rhode Island a national “example for opportunity.”

If any news was made at the Economic Progress Institute’s governor’s candidate forum, it was that Raimondo said she would dismantle the parts of Rhode Island’s health care exchange that link people with other social services to help offset the cost when federal funding runs out. She also said “income inequality is the single biggest problem facing our state and in fact our country.”  Here’s how she said she would address income inequality:

Todd Giroux plays the part of the everyman political outsider. He was the only candidate on stage who didn’t got to Harvard and who has actually worked in the Rhode Island economy – they both sounds like nice attributes in a candidate but neither will likely garner him any political support.