Dolphin attacks trainer and drags him underwater during show at controversial Miami Seaquarium, video shows
- Video footage shows a dolphin attacking a trainer at the Miami Seaquarium over the past weekend.
- A former veterinarian at the Sequarium told local media that this was not an isolated incident.
- PETA condemned the Miami Seaquarium’s “exploitation of dolphins” after a poor USDA report last year.
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An audience member captured the moment a dolphin turned violent and attacked a trainer at the Miami Seaquarium last weekend.
Video footage of the incident, shared on TikTok, shows the trainer struggling to keep swimming as the dolphin, Sundance, drags him underwater.
Sundance, who has been in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium for the rest of his life, can then be seen banging the trainer towards the edge of the pool.
According to Local10.com, the trainer was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Miami-Dade security officials were contacted as a precaution, the media outlet said, but the trainer did not suffer any serious injuries.
Kentucky photographer Shannon Carpenter, who filmed the episode, was visiting the show with her family when the dolphins became aggressive. “The kids were happy and thought it was neat. You could tell the adults that something was wrong,” she said, according to the New York Post.
The Miami Seaquarium did not respond to an insider’s request for comment, but according to a statement provided to CBS News, an investigation concluded that the trainer had accidentally scratched the dolphins.
“A dolphin and a trainer accidentally collided in the water on Saturday while performing routine behavior as part of a flipper show. It was an uncomfortable conversation for both of them and the dolphins reacted by hitting the trainer by breaking away from the routine.” The statement said.
According to CBS News, the dolphin was also not injured.
Jenna Wallace, a veterinarian who works at the Miami Seaquarium, told Local10.com that she believes it was not an isolated incident.
“I have been told by past veterinarians and staff that this animal had hit another trainer in the stomach,” Wallace told the media outlet.
“When dolphins get aggressive like this, there’s always some underlying thing going on,” she continued.
Animal rights organization PETA condemned the “exploitation of dolphins” at the Miami Seaquarium in a statement published Tuesday.
“Time is over for the Miami Seaquarium, where long-suffering dolphins are in dire need of protection and workers are at risk,” said Jared Goodman, the organization’s general counsel for animal law.
“PETA urges this abused park to end their exploitation of dolphins as soon as possible by moving them to sanctuaries so they can never be used in tawdry shows and hurt anyone else,” the statement said. Don’t arrive.”
Last June, the Miami Seaquarium was cited for several animal welfare violations in a 17-page report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The report mentions animals feeding on rotten fish, death of dolphins, deteriorating ponds and inadequate care of the animals.
The Miami Seaquarium is also home to the Orca Lolita which has been performing to audiences for 52 years. She has become the focus of a campaign to release her from the world’s smallest orca tank to a marine sanctuary in her native northeastern Pacific Ocean, Euronews reports.
