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Run by the Covino family, San Antonio Aquarium is a shipwreck of a facility, where vulnerable animals endure the owners’ perfect storm of greed and incompetence. Various species are thrown into an endless onslaught of public encounters, each one endangering the health of the animals, staff, and visitors—all while the Covino family reaps the profits.

Wild animals don’t want to be pet, poked, or prodded by humans, and subjecting them to the stress of irregular sleep, mishandling, loud noises, and crowds of strangers for public encounters puts the animals and the public in danger of getting injured. At this exploitative operation, a giant Pacific octopus latched onto a boy’s arm and wouldn’t let go. Staff members reportedly took up to five minutes to free the boy, who was left with bruising from his wrist to his armpit.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has previously cited San Antonio Aquarium for several incidents in which endangered lemurs bit or scratched either staff or members of the public, finding that three of the six lemurs used in public encounters have injured visitors. The USDA also cited the facility for allowing animals to languish in temperatures nearing 90 degrees after the air conditioning failed, exposing many species to temperatures exceeding regulatory limits. Another citation described young kangaroos kept in a staff office alongside electrical cords and other supplies without a dedicated enclosure, which is required “to protect them from injury.”
Please never visit roadside zoos! Politely tell the Covinos to focus on animal-free entertainment and transfer the animals at San Antonio Aquarium to reputable facilities.
You may use the suggested letter below, but it’s always most effective to use your own words.