A crowd of Argentine beachgoers pulled a rare baby dolphin out of the sea, mobbed it to take selfies and then left it to die in the mud. After the incident was posted numerous times on social media there has been worldwide outrage. CBC News reported that there were two Franciscana dolphins swimming near the beach. They were taken from the water by tourists and passed around to be photographed until one of them died.
Youtube video footage, which has now been removed from the Internet, shows a dolphin being picked up by a man and then crowded and passed around as people try to touch it and pose for pictures. The video finally shows the small creature motionless on the beach, and it appears that no one makes any attempt to put it back in the water.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature says that Franciscana dolphins, which are typically found in Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, are near extinction, with only about 30,000 left in the wild. These rare animals are some of the smallest dolphins, not more than a few feet long.
A spokeswoman for the Australian branch of World Animal Protection told ABC News the organization condemns the behavior of the tourists, who “used the animals for entertainment purposes.” She went on to say that “at least one of these dolphins suffered a horrific, traumatic and utterly unnecessary death, for the sake of a few photographs.
The Argentine Wildlife Foundation has also spoken out against the act, and released a statement asking people who might find dolphins out of water return them to the sea.
Franciscana dolphins, like other dolphins, cannot be kept out of the water too long, as they soon suffer dehydration. Franciscanas have very thick, greasy skin that provides warmth, but is vulnerable to weather and causes their body temperature to rise quickly outside of water. They are the only type of river dolphins that live in saltwater.
The incident occurred at Santa Teresita, a beach resort town.