Nature
Selfish Selfies! Baby Dolphin Killed By Tourists For A Photo Op
Sam D
First Posted: Feb 01, 2017 03:20 AM EST
A baby dolphin in Argentina has been killed, just because a bunch of tourists wanted to capture the perfect selfies with it. According to a national newspaper, La Capital, the selfie-crazed tourists dragged the aquatic mammal from the ocean in San Bernardo.
The gruesome deed was captured on video and has since been uploaded on YouTube. The clip shows the tourists touching and literally mobbing the dolphin. "They let him die," an observer quoted in La Capital. "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."
According to the National Geographic, this is the second occurrence that has taken in Argentina and that too within a span of a year, where a young dolphin has died due to the callousness of selfie-seeking tourists. Last February, a baby dolphin from the endangered La Plata species died on a beach in Santa Teresita, a resort town in Argentina. A group of tourists had passed the dolphin around until it died due to dehydration.
"Social media has changed the landscape, making exotic animals seem adorable and acceptable, but what you do not see is the suffering that lies behind the images," National Geographic reported last year. The popularity of instant photo sharing social media sites like Instagram and Facebook has led people to constantly look for ways to take and share the most unique photos. In this quest, a spate of tragic incidences is occurring, and harming animals is one of them. In 2015, a Colorado park was forced to close itself due to the need of tourists to take selfies with bears, without any heed to the risk posed on the animals or their own selves.
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First Posted: Feb 01, 2017 03:20 AM EST
A baby dolphin in Argentina has been killed, just because a bunch of tourists wanted to capture the perfect selfies with it. According to a national newspaper, La Capital, the selfie-crazed tourists dragged the aquatic mammal from the ocean in San Bernardo.
The gruesome deed was captured on video and has since been uploaded on YouTube. The clip shows the tourists touching and literally mobbing the dolphin. "They let him die," an observer quoted in La Capital. "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."
According to the National Geographic, this is the second occurrence that has taken in Argentina and that too within a span of a year, where a young dolphin has died due to the callousness of selfie-seeking tourists. Last February, a baby dolphin from the endangered La Plata species died on a beach in Santa Teresita, a resort town in Argentina. A group of tourists had passed the dolphin around until it died due to dehydration.
"Social media has changed the landscape, making exotic animals seem adorable and acceptable, but what you do not see is the suffering that lies behind the images," National Geographic reported last year. The popularity of instant photo sharing social media sites like Instagram and Facebook has led people to constantly look for ways to take and share the most unique photos. In this quest, a spate of tragic incidences is occurring, and harming animals is one of them. In 2015, a Colorado park was forced to close itself due to the need of tourists to take selfies with bears, without any heed to the risk posed on the animals or their own selves.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone