CRUEL AND UNUSUAL

Sick Dolphin Killed in Texas After Beachgoers Try to Ride It

The dolphin washed ashore the Quintana Beach County Park but beachgoers then shimmied it back into the water and tried to mount it.

A sick dolphin died on a Texas beach Sunday after beachgoers tried to ride it, the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network said. The dolphin washed ashore the Quintana Beach County Park where it was discovered by a group of people who then shimmied it back out into the water and tried to mount it, the group said. The dolphin then washed back to shore where it was later found dead. “Dolphins strand because they are sick or injured and will most likely drown if returned to sea,” Heidi Whitehead, executive director of Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, told the Houston Chronicle. “Marine mammals are federally protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and those behaviors are considered harassment.” Whitehead said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been supplied with information to investigate the potentially illegal act.