Second Death of 15-Year-Old Dolphin in Five Years Raises Flags That Entertainment Facility Could Be Violating Animal Protection Laws
For Immediate Release:
April 25, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Corpus Christi, Texas -- This morning, PETA sent a letter to Dr. Robert Gibbens of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) animal-care division urging him to launch an investigation into the death of a dolphin at the Texas State Aquarium. De Janeiro, or D.J., a 15-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, was found dead at the bottom of his tank on April 14. According to news reports, D.J. had stopped eating but had not received medical attention. In its letter, PETA asks the USDA to examine D.J.'s post-mortem records, determine if the aquarium violated the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), and immediately inspect the facility to ensure the health and well-being of the other two dolphins confined there. In 2007, Cobie, another 15-year-old male dolphin, died of pneumonia at the aquarium.
"If negligence or incompetence played a role in D.J.'s death, Texas State Aquarium officials must be held accountable," says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. "D.J.'s life was as tragic as his death—being confined like a prisoner to a tiny tank and forced to perform the same meaningless tricks day after day."
Specifically, PETA requests that the USDA determine if the aquarium complied with the provisions of the AWA regulating the examination of sick animals by attending veterinarians, requiring that a complete necropsy be performed, and requiring that care was supervised by an experienced marine mammal caretaker and that a sufficient number of adequately trained employees were on hand to care for D.J. after he had been found to be ill.
In their natural habitats, dolphins swim together in family pods and travel up to 100 miles each day. Dolphins navigate by bouncing sonar waves off objects to determine location and distance. In captivity, the reverberations that occur when their own sonar bounces off pool walls drive some dolphins insane, according to the late renowned oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.