A dolphin calf approached the shore at El Trampolín beach in Ceuta on Wednesday. Minutes later, it lay dead at the water’s edge with blood beneath one eye.
The videos quickly spread through the Spanish media. They show a group of men lifting the young animal out of the water and holding it above their heads while the crowd on the beach cheers. The dolphin is carried around like a trophy.
An employee of the cleaning company Ecoservicios was working on the beach when it happened. He shouted at the group that they had to stop hitting the animal and asked them to contact the environmental authorities. He was not heeded.
Content creator Juan Ruiz filmed parts of the incident and published them on Instagram.
– I saw them violently drag it out of the water, Ruiz says.
Eventually, someone managed to wrest the animal free and put it back into the sea. By then it was too late. The dolphin calf died from its injuries.
Watch the video yourself:
The environmental organisation DAUBMA has reported the case to the Guardia Civil and submitted video, photographs and audio recordings from witnesses. The organisation claims that several people forcibly removed the animal from the water, and that one of them struck it on the head with a stick.
Dolphins are fully protected in Spain. The Law on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity provides for fines of between €3,001 and €200,000 for serious offences. For the most serious cases, fines can reach €2 million.
That same week, another video from Ceuta circulated. It shows a man in the El Pantano area with a goose whose legs have been tied together. A passer-by confronted him and attempted to detain him until the Guardia Civil arrived. The man fled the scene. The animal rights party Pacma has condemned the incident.
Ceuta has been in a state of emergency since the summer. After Spain’s Supreme Court on 29 June prohibited the immediate return of migrants who swim across the border, and rumours of open borders spread on social media, tens of thousands crossed from Morocco into the enclave in late July. The Spanish Interior Ministry initially estimated 50,000 people, later 72,000. Moroccan authorities put the figure at around 40,000.
The death toll figures vary. Ceuta’s regional authorities reported 88 dead on 3 August. The Interior Ministry revised the figure down to 75. Morocco has confirmed eleven.
Around 70,000 are said to have returned to Morocco during the first days of August. On 3 August, a delegate estimated that approximately 2,500 were still awaiting return.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has attributed the mass influx to a misinterpretation of the Supreme Court ruling and disinformation on social media.
None of the men on the beach has been identified. No one has been arrested, Spanish media report.
