It seems like the world of animal cruelty is so vast and ever-expanding. Whatever goes through the minds of people at the time they choose to partake is a complete mystery to those of us with sound trains of thought, but still, it happens.
Almost exactly one year ago, Argentinians were filmed dragging a rare baby La Plata dolphin out of the water and leaving it out long enough that it eventually died on the beach. Now, almost an identical situation has happened, one year later.
Once again in Argentina, beach-goers who wanted to take a picture with a baby dolphin that somehow ended up on the shore by itself, allowed the creature to die by dragging it out of the water and keeping it out for far too long.
The fuzzy smartphone video below, shared by C5N, a local television news agency, shows the beachgoers holding and petting the creature while it lays motionless on the beach sand:
Otra vez mataron a un delfín en San Bernardo. Sacaron al animal del mar para sacarse fotos. pic.twitter.com/4qzYnWvKiH
— C5N (@C5N) January 23, 2017
“They let him die,” a witness said to news agency C5N. “He was young and came to the shore. They could have returned him to the water—in fact, he was breathing. But everyone started taking photos and touching him. They said he was already dead.”
Although dolphins are air-breathers, much like us, they can dehydrate very quickly from being kept away from the water. Although they are mammals, they are marine mammals, and they still rely on water to survive.
That’s exactly what happened to our little friend here in Argentina, who was kept out of the water so long for a selfie with some humans that he perished.
It’s a sad story indeed, and unfortunately, many of these people are tourists who aren’t native to the region and simply don’t know any better about how their actions can hurt the local wildlife.
Intentional or not, things might be more apt to change if Argentina would start patrolling their beaches to ensure activity like this doesn’t take place. One thing that’s clear in both incidents is that no one ever steps in to stop these people from handling the creatures.
People really just need to start developing common sense so that nature doesn't have to suffer at our own hands.
Source: La Capital via National Geographic