Nadia Garcia Gomez has launched a petition demanding arrests after a dolphin calf was allegedly beaten to death on a Ceuta beach.
Garcia Gomez, a local resident, announced the campaign in a social media post on Wednesday, September 2, describing how the disoriented young bottlenose dolphin was “brutally pulled from the water” at Trampolin Beach. She stated that eyewitnesses and local media reported the animal “was handled as if it were an object and violently struck on the head with a stick, causing its immediate death.”
“On Wednesday, September 2, a disoriented dolphin calf swimming near the shore at Trampolin Beach, in Ceuta, was brutally pulled from the water,” she wrote in her post launching the petition.
Garcia Gomez labeled the attack “extreme and unjustifiable cruelty” that cannot go unpunished. She pointed out that dolphins are a protected species under Spanish and European laws.
The incident has intensified already fierce tensions in the North African Spanish enclave, where thousands of migrants from neighboring Morocco have remained after a massive border crossing in July. More than 70,000 migrants stormed the tiny territory’s border defenses that month, and while most returned home shortly afterward, a significant number stayed.
Other residents have joined Garcia Gomez in calling for the migrants involved to be prosecuted and expelled from Spain. Some locals have demanded tougher action from the central government in Madrid, and anger has spilled into direct confrontation. Last week, furious residents tore down migrant tents and shelters at the beach.
The video circulating online shows a group of men and boys triumphantly lifting what appeared to be a baby bottlenose dolphin calf above their heads as onlookers cheered. The dolphin had swum too close to shore when the group allegedly pulled it from El Trampolin beach.
Some people were heard shouting “no” in the video, and some men were cheering. Others appeared concerned at the treatment of the marine mammal. Someone eventually took the mammal and placed it back in the water.
The celebration appeared to enrage local residents, who tried to stop the group’s actions during a confrontation. One of the men reportedly struck the dolphin with a stick, mortally wounding it.
Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city on the northern coast of Africa, has long been a flashpoint for migration tensions. Its land border with Morocco makes it one of only two EU territories sharing a land frontier with an African country, and it has repeatedly seen surges of migrants attempting to reach European soil.
The dolphin killing has become the latest symbol for residents frustrated with both the migrant presence and what they see as inadequate response from Madrid.
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