An organization for the defense of animals in the United States on Thursday increased to $ 8,000 the reward for any information that leads to the capture of the person who engraved the word “TRUMP” on the back of a manatee in Florida waters.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), in Citrus County, increased the amount of the reward from $ 3,000 to $ 8,000 for the capture of the person or persons who wrote the name of the former US president on a manatee, who It was discovered on January 10 in the Homosassa River.
“It is worrying that someone has interfered with a threatened species. We hope that the additional reward will reinvigorate the case and present a witness, ”Stephen Wells, ALDF CEO, said in a statement.
According to officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies that continue to investigate the event, the word “appears to be written in seaweed and not carved on the manatee’s back,” which does not appear to be in danger.
These mammals are considered a threatened species and are protected by laws that prohibit “harassing, injuring or disturbing” manatees.
“Harassment” includes any act that potentially injures or disturbs an animal or causes a disruption to the normal behavior of a manatee.
Dave Bautista, star of the movie “Guardians of the galaxy”, offered a reward of $ 20,000 last January also for information that allows the arrest of the person responsible for this crime.
Bautista, a former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestling champion, is not the only one offering a reward for catching the vandal who engraved the former president’s last name on the mammal’s skin in the Homosassa River, on Florida’s northwest coast.
These aquatic mammals are plant eaters and have no natural enemies.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), 674 manatees have died between January 1 and April 14, much more than half of the 824 that died during all of 2018, the worst so far. year for this herbivore.
Most years, the mortality of these animals involves boats, which account for about 20% of known human-caused deaths, according to the Center for Biological Diversity in St. Petersburg, on the west coast of Florida.
Each year about a hundred manatees are killed by boat collisions, as recreational boating in Florida continues to increase.
A report from this center found that the government’s fast-track authorization of boat access projects without analyzing their collective impacts is likely a key factor behind boat strikes, which remain the leading cause of manatee deaths. EFE
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