Speak Up for Animals Neglected at Interactive Aquariums

Interactive aquariums and indoor petting zoos are cruel. Animals are typically deprived of veterinary care, confined to cramped, crowded enclosures, and forced into direct contact with visitors, which often results in visitors getting injured. Wild animals don’t want to interact with humans, and subjecting them to a barrage of unnatural, direct-contact encounters with the public is both stressful for them and dangerous for everyone involved.

Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve, San Antonio Aquarium, and Austin Aquarium are all operated by members of the Covino family. Ammon Covino is involved in the management of these facilities and is a convicted wildlife trafficker. At the now-closed Portland Aquarium in Oregon, which was also owned by the Covinos, more than 200 animals—including seahorses, stingrays, garden eels, bamboo sharks, and other species of fish—allegedly died in just a few months due to starvation, infections, and other seemingly preventable causes.

Covino-owned aquariums have an ever-growing list of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) citations:

• Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve received a critical citation on two separate occasions for failing to maintain the mesh of a bird enclosure that resulted in the escape of an eclectus parrot and 40 parakeets, none of whom were recovered.
• San Antonio Aquarium received a critical citation and an official warning after a female African crested porcupine was killed by a male porcupine due to incompatibility issues and inadequate barriers.
• Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve and San Antonio Aquarium have both been cited for failing to keep animals’ enclosures at proper temperatures, which could be detrimental to animals’ health and well-being.
• Austin Aquarium was cited for confining an 8-week-old lemur in a crate that was too small, for flies swarming around a capybara, and after inspectors observed two otters exhibiting abnormal behavior, which is a sign of severe psychological distress.
• And there are many more.

Please take action below to tell Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve, San Antonio Aquarium, and Austin Aquarium to stop exploiting animals and transfer them all to reputable facilities where they could get the care they deserve—before more die.

Contact Austin Aquarium by taking action on our alert, filling out its online form, calling 512-222-5586, and commenting on social media to ask the aquarium to switch to only animal-free entertainment:

Contact San Antonio Aquarium by taking action on our alert, filling out its online form, and commenting on social media to urge the aquarium to switch to animal-free entertainment:

Contact Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve by taking action on our alert, calling 281-442-7000, and commenting on social media:

Thank you for your compassion for animals.