Sammy the seal pup on death row

• Sammy the seal is biting the hand that feeds
• Authorites say the wild seal may have to be put down
• Was moved 70km away from trouble but swam back

SAMMY the seal is under a death sentence for biting the hand that feeds him.

The threat comes after the public ignored pleas to stop feeding him and reports he has bitten several people at Stony Point, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

Wildlife officer Glenn Sharp said the seal's fate lay in the hands of those who continue to feed him bait and fish scraps.

Department of Sustainability and Environment said euthanasia would be considered as a "last resort".

Mornington resident Penny Femino said her son Brody, 4, dubbed the seal Sammy, and knew not to interfere with him.

"It's fine for Sammy to be a local tourist attraction, so long as the public knows not to interfere with his natural instincts and behaviour," she said.

The DSE threat to put Sammy down angered RSPCA president Hugh Wirth, who said the seal should not be punished for human stupidity.

"If people are getting bitten because they are stupid and failing to recognise they are dealing with a wild animal, they deserve everything they get," Dr Wirth said. "I have absolutely no sympathy."

The year-old seal has defied efforts to move him to a seal colony at Sorrento, by swimming 70km back to Stony Point.

Mornington Peninsula vet and animal behaviour expert Katrina Gregory said she urged the DSE to move Sammy back in November, before he established Stony Point as his territorial home.

The department was reluctant to interfere, so Ms Gregory organised for Sammy to go by road to Sorrento on March 12.

But the seal, keen for the free feeds he has been enjoying at Stony Point pier, swam back.

He has resumed his habit of pestering fishermen for a cut of their catch.

Just 15kg now, he could reach 300kg as an adult, and the DSE warned he could become dangerous and unpredictable as he becomes increasingly reliant on humans for food.

"DSE hopes the seal will return to its colony before it becomes aggressive to people who don't feed it, and before its health begins to deteriorate due to a growing lack of inclination to hunt," it said.

Dolphin Research Institute president Jeff Weir said more people had been injured by seals than by sharks and they were wild animals best left alone.