In a troubling video, tourists are seen pummeling and beating a defenseless Caspian seal for the purpose of allowing their children to pose for pictures with the creature, according to eyewitnesses. The incident happened on a beach close to Kuryk, a coastal village in Kazakhstan. And the heartbreaking footage has since gone viral, leaving thousands, if not millions of folks worldwide sick to their stomachs. The video shows a group of men surrounding the endangered seal and starts hitting the creature with sticks and large rocks after luring it to shore.
As all this was taking place, a crowd of people simply stood by and watched the brutal event, never stepping in to intervene on the creature’s behalf. According to a report from a local media outlet, the vicious assault continued until the seal was knocked unconscious.
“They beat the seal up until it passed out. Then they pulled it out of the water so that children could take pictures and have fun,” an unnamed witness explained to local media. “After that, they threw the motionless body back into the sea. I don’t know if it survived.”
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The sickening video came out just days after a similar incident went viral a couple of days before. In that video, which was first shared on model Yevgeniya Mukasheva’s Instagram page, you could see beachgoers in a region called Aktau, located about 43 miles from Kuryk, throwing big rocks at baby seal after they lured the curious little animal toward them. The model wrote in the video’s caption:
“Do people really have a complete lack of brains?”
“How could you throw stones at the defenseless pup and laugh? Have you lost your mind?”
Continuing, she said: “When will we already understand that it is necessary to value and care for every creature on the planet? What more pain do we need to strike so that we understand that mercy and compassion must be in our minds?”
Both of these incidents are currently under investigation by police in the region.
“The way people acted in the video is outrageous and wild,” said Saken Dildakhmet, a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources.
“Such an attitude can cause great damage to the fauna of the Caspian Sea and adversely affect the behavior of these animals who may become aggressive and attack people,” the official added. “We ask you to show respect to nature.”
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Caspian seals have a reputation for being very friendly toward humans. They are often curious and harmless creatures known to approach humans on shorelines and beaches in the region.
“The seal in the clip is young and playful,” Dildakhmet added. “The seals are mostly very friendly and curious marine mammals. We should admire them.”
Authorities are now actively looking to bring the men in these videos to justice, who could also face maximum prison sentences of up to two years for committing crimes against nature. The regional conservationist group known as Caspian Seal Project reports that since the start of the 20th century, the Caspian seal population has declined by an astounding 90 percent.
And in 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that the Caspian seal has the status of “Endangered” and they face a serious risk of becoming extinct due to economic activities within their natural habitat along with coastal development in other countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Iran.
You can watch the tragic video of the assault below.