A baby died at an Argentina beach after a crowd of people dragged the animal out of the water to take pictures with it.
Argentina news outlet La Capital has published a bystander video showing a mob in the city of San Bernardo, surrounding a baby dolphin and petting it. The animal was initially alive, but eventually died as it was not allowed to go into the water.
A witness, named Claudia, told Spanish-language broadcaster CN5 that tourists wanted to “let him die”. The animal was young and had come to the shore.
“This is a tragic and senseless death and sadly shows some people’s focus on obtaining an animal selfie rather than thinking of the animal’s welfare,” an email from the World Animal Protection sent to The Huffington Post stated.
“It is so disappointing to see yet again how wild animals are treated cruelly as photo props.”
According to experts, a dolphin’s body can’t survive on land because of the heat and its body weight. The buoyancy in the ocean supports the body weight of a dolphin, but when beached on land, the animal feels tremendous pressure on fins and lungs, and difficulty in breathing. Dolphins also get overheated when taken out of the water.
Last February, in a similar incident, a group of Buenos Aires beachgoers had pulled two La Plata dolphins from the water to take pictures, and one of these dolphins eventually died. The Argentinian Wildlife Foundation was forced to issue a public reminder about the vulnerable La Plata dolphins, whose populations has declined to 30,000 in the world. These dolphins are found off the coasts of Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. These creatures often come close to shoreline, and often get tangled in fishing equipment.
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