A baby dolphin has died after tourists in southern Spain took the animal from the shallows and passed it around for photos.

It has been reported that a the lifeguard who tried to intervene “saw hundreds of people rushing towards the animal”, and sadly, children were seen covering the baby dolphin’s blowhole in their rush to handle it. 

Marine conservationists raced to the scene at the seaside resort in Almería province but the animal was already dead.

This is not the first time this sort of display of unfortunate ignorance has occurred. Last April, sunbathers in Argentina were branded “selfie-taking scum” after allegedly taking a dolphin out of the water and posing for photos.

Born Free is both saddened and disturbed by this emerging trend which has seen animals lose their lives just for the sake of a photograph. ‘It appears that some people do not know the right way to act when encountering wild animals’ said Samantha Goddard, Born Free’s captivity campaigns officer. ‘We must all work together to educate the public, particularly tourists in coastal areas, to leave wild animals where they belong; and that no animal deserves to die for a holiday snap’