Selfie craze kills stranded baby dolphin

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Europe

A baby dolphin stranded on a Spanish beach has died after being passed around and photographed by tourists.

Curious holidaymakers pulled out the small female still of breast-feeding age, who lost its mother and became stranded in shallow waters off the coast of southern Spain last Friday. Some passed it round to take selfies with the creature.

Equinac Facebook Photo

Marine conservationists raced to the scene but the dolphin was already dead when they arrived.

Equinac Facebook Photo

Equinac, a non-profit organization, who help rescue stranded marine turtles and wildlife in the region, later reported the incident on its Facebook page and criticized the obsessive selfie-takers for the dolphin’s death.

They said the dolphin would have been “terrified” and may have been saved if beach-goers were quicker to alert authorities.

“Humans are the most irrational animal there is. Many people are unable to feel empathy for a living being which is frightened, starving hungry, without its mother and terrified. In their selfishness, all they want is to photograph it and touch it, even if the animal is suffering from stress.”

The incident sparked widespread outrage towards the selfish handling of the dolphin.

Twitter Screenshot