wrassehole
wannabe reefmaster
Boys held in sharks' killings
Youths caught when they returned for second night, police say.
By Tracy Manzer
Staff writer
LONG BEACH — Police captured three youths suspected of torturing and killing two docile sharks and a ray at the Aquarium of the Pacific after they returned with another boy to the scene of the crime to carry out more mayhem late Monday, an official said.
Aquarium staff arrived at work before 9 a.m. Monday and found that someone had broken into the aquarium after it closed Sunday night and had brutalized the two sharks and a cow-nosed ray a relative of the sting ray and then left them for dead.
A security guard was posted to stand watch over the Shark Lagoon, the aquarium's most popular exhibit, on Monday night. He heard the boys trying to sneak back in around 9 p.m., said Sgt. David Cannan, a Long Beach Police Department spokesman.
When he startled the boys, they ran. But nearby police officers captured the teens just down the street, he said. All four are from Long Beach.
Three 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old were taken into custody and admitted that three of them had been there the previous night and battered the animals after climbing over an 8-foot fence that surrounds the outdoor area, police said.
They had returned with a friend who wanted to join in on a second night of attacks. Cannan said that because the boys are juveniles, he could not discuss the reasons they gave for carrying out the killings.
All of the boys were held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Detection Facility in Downey. The charge included counts of felony animal cruelty, conspiracy to commit felony animal cruelty and trespassing, the sergeant said.
None of the surviving animals appeared to be traumatized by the attack and were behaving normally, and security upgrades are being considered, aquarium officials said Tuesday as public outcry over the butchered animals grew.
"What hurts me most is that I can really visualize how she went, the struggle she put up," said Eric Castillo, one of the aquarists who cares for the sharks and rays. He found Michelle, a 3-foot nurse shark that was killed.
"I could see the drag marks in the dirt," he explained. "When I walked up to her, I put my hand on her, and there was nothing. She was already gone."
Michelle and the others lived in Shark Lagoon, an interactive touch pool where children and adults can feel the sandpaper-like skin of the sharks as they glide by and touch the smooth-skinned rays. The shallow tanks, made to look like tropical reefs, sit next to a tank of larger species. The exhibit is designed to show visitors that the majority of sharks are no threat to humans.
Attacks detailed
Michelle was one of the first animals housed in the lagoon when it opened in 2002, and she was dragged from her touch pool and slammed against the concrete. She was then taken out of the aquarium's property and dumped beneath some shrubs behind the facility.
Aquarium staff estimated that she had been touched by thousands of children during her time in the interactive pools.
The bamboo shark, which was about 18 inches long, was flung onto a portion of the bird sanctuary that houses the lorikeet exhibit. It was still alive, though in critical condition, when the vet left around 10 p.m. Monday, said Perry Hampton, director of Animal Husbandry. The shark died during the night, however.
And the cow-nosed ray had been dragged from its touch pool and stabbed with a pole or some other slender object and left to die, Hampton said.
The youths also took several small sharks from the touch pools and dumped them into the tank holding the much-larger sharks. None of them was harmed, staff said Tuesday. But the teens tossed everything else they could find, from nets and poles to signs and benches, into the deeper pool.
A nearby exhibit of shark eggs was also attacked, and at least two egg cases were hacked open with a knife and the creature inside killed. They had been laid by Fern, the most popular of the grown zebra sharks that live in the large tank. When zebra sharks are young, they covered in stripes. As they age, the stripes metamorphose into spots.
Gentle creatures
Fern who is about 5 feet long and the other sharks bobbed to the surface of the big tank as the staff neared the edge, pushing their spotted noses up to be stroked. They seemed to relish the cooing and attention of their handlers.
Caroline Thompson, who works in the education department and volunteers with the shark exhibit, said the sharks are bottom feeders and harmless. They are so gentle and sociable, especially Fern, that they are referred to as the "puppies of the sea."
"In a perfect world all three of these boys can be made to realize the seriousness of their actions," Aquarium President Jerry Schubel said. "I would love for them to one day call Perry and be able to apologize and be brought here to work with the sharks, to protect the very animals they were trying to harm."
The aquarium had offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the vandals, and the city on Tuesday offered to match that amount before learning the boys had been caught. That money will now be used to fund a new education program for children in the Long Beach school district, Schubel said.
They have not yet decided what age group to focus on, but Schubel said it will definitely include pupils in the same age group as the arrested boys and will focus on helping children understand and appreciate their role as caretakers for all animals.
The aquarium is also considering what changes it will make to increase security. The facility uses 24-hour security guards and video monitors and guards usually make rounds to different areas every hour to two hours. It is not yet known how much was recorded by the video equipment because the areas where animals are housed have very little light at night to mimic a natural environment, Schubel said.
Staff at the aquarium received calls throughout the day from concerned people offering help, said Cecil Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Aquarium of the Pacific.
One woman was so distraught that she could only cry on the phone. Another woman and her son decided to adopt a shark, through the aquarium's adopt-a-shark program, in an effort to try and help the organization that was still reeling from Monday's grisly discovery.
Aquarium staff had been devastated by the acts, Hampton said, but were much happier Tuesday when they heard that the teens had been caught.
"They should do the same things to those kids that they did to the sharks," remarked one visitor as he walked away from the exhibit Tuesday.
Youths caught when they returned for second night, police say.
By Tracy Manzer
Staff writer
LONG BEACH — Police captured three youths suspected of torturing and killing two docile sharks and a ray at the Aquarium of the Pacific after they returned with another boy to the scene of the crime to carry out more mayhem late Monday, an official said.
Aquarium staff arrived at work before 9 a.m. Monday and found that someone had broken into the aquarium after it closed Sunday night and had brutalized the two sharks and a cow-nosed ray a relative of the sting ray and then left them for dead.
A security guard was posted to stand watch over the Shark Lagoon, the aquarium's most popular exhibit, on Monday night. He heard the boys trying to sneak back in around 9 p.m., said Sgt. David Cannan, a Long Beach Police Department spokesman.
When he startled the boys, they ran. But nearby police officers captured the teens just down the street, he said. All four are from Long Beach.
Three 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old were taken into custody and admitted that three of them had been there the previous night and battered the animals after climbing over an 8-foot fence that surrounds the outdoor area, police said.
They had returned with a friend who wanted to join in on a second night of attacks. Cannan said that because the boys are juveniles, he could not discuss the reasons they gave for carrying out the killings.
All of the boys were held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Detection Facility in Downey. The charge included counts of felony animal cruelty, conspiracy to commit felony animal cruelty and trespassing, the sergeant said.
None of the surviving animals appeared to be traumatized by the attack and were behaving normally, and security upgrades are being considered, aquarium officials said Tuesday as public outcry over the butchered animals grew.
"What hurts me most is that I can really visualize how she went, the struggle she put up," said Eric Castillo, one of the aquarists who cares for the sharks and rays. He found Michelle, a 3-foot nurse shark that was killed.
"I could see the drag marks in the dirt," he explained. "When I walked up to her, I put my hand on her, and there was nothing. She was already gone."
Michelle and the others lived in Shark Lagoon, an interactive touch pool where children and adults can feel the sandpaper-like skin of the sharks as they glide by and touch the smooth-skinned rays. The shallow tanks, made to look like tropical reefs, sit next to a tank of larger species. The exhibit is designed to show visitors that the majority of sharks are no threat to humans.
Attacks detailed
Michelle was one of the first animals housed in the lagoon when it opened in 2002, and she was dragged from her touch pool and slammed against the concrete. She was then taken out of the aquarium's property and dumped beneath some shrubs behind the facility.
Aquarium staff estimated that she had been touched by thousands of children during her time in the interactive pools.
The bamboo shark, which was about 18 inches long, was flung onto a portion of the bird sanctuary that houses the lorikeet exhibit. It was still alive, though in critical condition, when the vet left around 10 p.m. Monday, said Perry Hampton, director of Animal Husbandry. The shark died during the night, however.
And the cow-nosed ray had been dragged from its touch pool and stabbed with a pole or some other slender object and left to die, Hampton said.
The youths also took several small sharks from the touch pools and dumped them into the tank holding the much-larger sharks. None of them was harmed, staff said Tuesday. But the teens tossed everything else they could find, from nets and poles to signs and benches, into the deeper pool.
A nearby exhibit of shark eggs was also attacked, and at least two egg cases were hacked open with a knife and the creature inside killed. They had been laid by Fern, the most popular of the grown zebra sharks that live in the large tank. When zebra sharks are young, they covered in stripes. As they age, the stripes metamorphose into spots.
Gentle creatures
Fern who is about 5 feet long and the other sharks bobbed to the surface of the big tank as the staff neared the edge, pushing their spotted noses up to be stroked. They seemed to relish the cooing and attention of their handlers.
Caroline Thompson, who works in the education department and volunteers with the shark exhibit, said the sharks are bottom feeders and harmless. They are so gentle and sociable, especially Fern, that they are referred to as the "puppies of the sea."
"In a perfect world all three of these boys can be made to realize the seriousness of their actions," Aquarium President Jerry Schubel said. "I would love for them to one day call Perry and be able to apologize and be brought here to work with the sharks, to protect the very animals they were trying to harm."
The aquarium had offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the vandals, and the city on Tuesday offered to match that amount before learning the boys had been caught. That money will now be used to fund a new education program for children in the Long Beach school district, Schubel said.
They have not yet decided what age group to focus on, but Schubel said it will definitely include pupils in the same age group as the arrested boys and will focus on helping children understand and appreciate their role as caretakers for all animals.
The aquarium is also considering what changes it will make to increase security. The facility uses 24-hour security guards and video monitors and guards usually make rounds to different areas every hour to two hours. It is not yet known how much was recorded by the video equipment because the areas where animals are housed have very little light at night to mimic a natural environment, Schubel said.
Staff at the aquarium received calls throughout the day from concerned people offering help, said Cecil Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Aquarium of the Pacific.
One woman was so distraught that she could only cry on the phone. Another woman and her son decided to adopt a shark, through the aquarium's adopt-a-shark program, in an effort to try and help the organization that was still reeling from Monday's grisly discovery.
Aquarium staff had been devastated by the acts, Hampton said, but were much happier Tuesday when they heard that the teens had been caught.
"They should do the same things to those kids that they did to the sharks," remarked one visitor as he walked away from the exhibit Tuesday.
