WATCH: Tourist Hauls Stranded Dolphin off Guangdong Beach
By Matthew Bossons
Authorities in South China are working to identify and locate a man filmed hauling a dying dolphin off a Guangdong beach over the Labor Day holiday, which ran from April 29 to May 1.
In the video, a man in black swim-trunks can be seen carrying a dolphin – which is casually flung over his shoulder – down the beach as an unidentified woman follows behind him. The troubling incident occurred on Hailing Island, according to a heavily-cited Btime.com article.
Watch footage below (VPN off):
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=u0642mogw1m&width=500&height=375&auto=0
Outside China? Watch at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tBjpEUFnno.
Understandably, authorities are less than impressed with the dolphin-snatching man – who is thought to have been a visitor to the island.
“We received reports from witnesses saying there was a dolphin that had got stranded on the beach and looked like it was about to die when it was found,” a fisheries official told Btime.com. “The man, thought to be a tourist on the island, was then seen to have carried the dolphin away on his car.
"Dolphins are protected animals [in China]. Whether it was dead or alive, he should have called the authorities for help.”
READ MORE: Chinese White Dolphins Disappearing from Hong Kong Waters
Netizens were predictably upset with the poorly behaved tourist, with one user quoted in a South China Morning Post article writing: “These people are like savages. They should be punished and made to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan.”
Another commented: "This guy is sick in the head and should seek treatment."
Hailing Island is located near the city of Yangjiang in Guangdong province, roughly a five-hour drive from Shenzhen. From 2005-2007 the island was named one of the most beautiful islands in China by Chinese National Geography magazine. Hailing is near Shangchuan Island, where in 2017 a juvenile finless porpoise was found dead on a relatively desolate stretch of coastline on the east side of the island.
READ MORE: 3 Men Charged in Barbaric Dolphin Butchering in South China
[Images via QQ Video]
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