A bottlenose dolphin calf was found dead at around midday on Wednesday on Trampolín beach in Ceuta, according to ‘El Faro de Ceuta’, and in circumstances that the Association for the Defence of Urban Trees, Biodiversity and the Environment (DAUBMA) considers an attack. The organisation has filed a formal complaint with the Guardia Civil and requested that proceedings be opened to clarify what happened.
According to the association’s account, the animal reached the shore alive, disoriented, possibly because of the fog in the area that morning. Once on land, DAUBMA says, several people dragged it out of the water and hit it on the head with a stick.
The organisation says it has photographs, videos and social media screenshots that also show blood beneath one of the animal’s eyes, as well as some of the people present trying to wipe it away. In its view, this points to a direct attack and to manipulation of the carcass that is incompatible with any attempt to help the animal. All of this material has been made available to the Guardia Civil.
A verified video that circulated widely, with no perpetrators identified
The footage, first shared on social media, was recorded on the part of the beach where people who entered Ceuta during the mass crossing on 30 and 31 July remain camped.
A worker from the cleaning company Ecoservicios, who was in the area, witnessed the scene and warned those present that they should stop what they were doing and call an environmental collection service.
After that warning, according to witnesses, they tried to return the animal to the sea, although it was no longer showing any signs of life. So far there has been no formal identification of those responsible: that is precisely what DAUBMA is seeking with its complaint to the Guardia Civil.
The case has sparked outrage online, and a local resident, Nadia García Gómez, has launched a petition on change.org calling for those responsible to be identified.
García Gómez stresses that she does not belong to any association and argues for a firm response to animal abuse: “This cruel act must be tried and punished”, she wrote online, in which she asks the authorities “to do something about it”. The petition points out that the bottlenose dolphin is a strictly protected species in the EU and that injuring or killing an individual can constitute a criminal offence.
DAUBMA and CECAM respond to criticism
Responding to those who ask where animal rights associations are when dead wildlife is found in Ceuta, DAUBMA and CECAM say their work focuses on documenting cases and passing them on to institutions, while lamenting the lack of any response.
They explain that more than three months ago they submitted to the Government Delegation a dossier on other cases of dead or affected animals, including dolphins and turtles showing, they say, signs of having fallen victim to drift nets, which are banned in the EU, but have received no reply.
They add that an attempt to file a complaint with Seprona was initially not processed, so they went to the duty court with technical and graphic material; the court, according to their account, ordered the case to be provisionally closed pending a Seprona report that has still not arrived.
Both organisations say they coordinate with emergency services, the Guardia Civil, Semar and collection companies, and call on the authorities to ensure that wildlife protection does not remain mere rhetoric.