PETA Seeks to Sink Proposed Loophole for Law-Breaking San Antonio Aquarium Over Prohibited Animals
Leon Valley, Texas — Following a formal complaint filed by PETA asking the city of Leon Valley to stop the San Antonio Aquarium from illegally exploiting animals—activity that has often led to animals biting and injuring customers—PETA has just learned that city leaders are quietly trying to push through an exemption to city code. The carveout would allow the Aquarium to continue engaging in otherwise illegal activities and leave many of the animals confined in the San Antonio Aquarium’s dismal enclosures with little to no protection. In response, PETA rushed an urgent letter to city council members today, calling on them to vote down the proposed loophole.
The City of Leon Valley Code currently prohibits keeping animals who are venomous and/or inherently dangerous to humans, including primates, alligators, and stingrays. Yet for years, officials have looked the other way while the San Antonio Aquarium has displayed alligators, a venomous octopus, stingrays, and pufferfish—and ignored numerous reported injuries to the public, including that of a six-year-old boy, who was grabbed by an octopus.
Now, rather than enforcing the ordinance, and just months after receiving PETA’s complaint, city leaders are apparently kowtowing to the aquarium by trying to amend the law so that it and other similar operations would effectively receive a blanket exemption to the ordinance it’s been violating for years. PETA notes that several species exhibited at the aquarium are not covered by specific federal or state welfare standards.
A stingray, a prohibited venomous species in Leon Valley, confined in an interactive tank at San Antonio Aquarium. Credit: PETA
“Leon Valley should be holding the San Antonio Aquarium accountable for years of brazenly flouting local law, not trying to quietly rewrite the rules for its benefit,” says PETA Foundation’s Associate Director of Captive Wildlife Rebecca Smudzinski. “PETA is urging city council members to reject this backroom loophole and prioritize animal welfare and public safety by refusing to hand this shipwreck of a facility a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
The San Antonio Aquarium is owned by the notorious Covino family, which has a long history of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) citations, wildlife trafficking, and animal exploitation and neglect. The Covinos also own the Houston Interactive Aquarium and Animal Preserve as well as the Austin Aquarium, which was issued an official warning last year by the USDA after a slew of customers were bitten, scratched, and otherwise injured by animals. PETA encourages everyone to call on the Covino family to transition to animal-free entertainment and transfer the animals to reputable facilities where they can live in peace.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
Contact:
Moira Colley 518-466-6815; [email protected]
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