A DOLPHIN calf has died on a beach in Mojácar (Almería province) after the stress caused by hundreds of bathers handling and crowding round her led to her suffering a heart attack.
According to the marine fauna rescue charity Equinac, she was surrounded by fascinated sunseekers who picked her up, played with her, passed her around and posed for selfies with her.
The beach lifeguard was 'losing it', Equinac said, trying to get everyone to leave the calf alone.
Eventually a young man managed to push the crowds out of the way – but by the time he reached her, it was too late.
“It's possible we may not have managed to save her anyway, but we would at least have tried,” laments the charity.
The dolphin was a lactating calf who had been separated from her mother and was already very frightened.
“There are so many people who are incapable of feeling empathy for a living creature, alone, dying of hunger, without its mother and terrified,” Equinac complained.
“This obsession with touching and taking pictures of animals that are really sensitive to stress, even if the creature suffers, is just selfish.”
Dolphins, like whales, are not fish, but mammals, and they can breathe outside the water, Equinac says.
“They are creatures very sensitive and vulnerable to distressing situations and they die very quickly if they are subjected to them,” Equinac concludes.
The pro-animal political party PACMA recalls that if a sea creature comes ashore, it is because it is 'already suffering some health problem that prevents it from carrying on swimming' and 'should not be put back in the water'.
“You could be condemning it to drowning,” PACMA explains.
“But at the same time, taking photos or handling it can cause them to go into shock, which is frequently fatal.”
Anyone who finds a sea creature stranded or trapped should immediately call the 112 emergency hotline, and the relevant experts will be sent out to assist it straight away.
