Photograph through Google Maps
Lately, the San Antonio Aquarium has additionally drawn penalties from native officers.
The privately owned San Antonio Aquarium, cited little greater than yr in the past by federal authorities for failing to satisfy animal-care requirements, has once more been known as out by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture — this time for the dying of a feminine porcupine.
A San Antonio Aquarium worker on July 28 found the deceased porcupine after the animal escaped her enclosure and entered the habitat of a male porcupine, in accordance with the brand new USDA quotation. The male then impaled the escaped feminine along with his quills, the Aug. 1 doc notes.
Solely three weeks prior, workers on the facility constructed a plywood wall to separate the 2 resulting from compatibility points, in accordance with the quotation.
“Housing amenities should be structurally robust and maintained in good restore to guard animals from damage and comprise the animals,” the USDA mentioned in its inspection report.
Officers with the San Antonio Aquarium have been unavailable for fast remark.
Animal-rights group PETA, a frequent critic of the San Antonio Aquarium, mentioned the federal quotation exhibits the ability is not able to assembly minimal requirements of animal care.
“A porcupine died as a result of the San Antonio Aquarium could not be bothered to safe the enclosures of two animals it knew could not be collectively,” PETA Basis Director of Captive Animal Legislation Enforcement Michelle Sinnott mentioned in an electronic mail assertion. “This tragic and preventable dying underscores why PETA urges the general public to keep away from this facility as if lives rely upon it — as a result of they do.”
Though the aquarium, positioned in a Leon Valley, is legally owned by Crystal Covino, PETA alleges that her husband, convicted wildlife trafficker Ammon Covino, really calls the pictures on the attraction.
In 2021, PETA unsuccessfully urged federal officers to close down the aquarium, alleging “Crystal’s involvement seems to be a method for Ammon to contravene federal legislation prohibiting him from acquiring a license to exhibit animals.”
Lately, the San Antonio Aquarium has additionally drawn penalties from native officers.
The attraction was cited and ordered to shut in March 2020, when police discovered it working in defiance of pandemic lockdown orders. In 2018, the Leon Valley Fireplace Division evacuated the constructing and demanded it shut down resulting from code violations, together with “unsecured propane tanks, heaters in unvented enclosures, a hazardous fuel most important faucet, blocked or inappropriate emergency exits, and non-compliant, hazardous electrical wiring.”
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