<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/2001-02/turtle070201.shtml> Aquarium staff ate rare turtle for lunch
By Andrew Gumbel
7 February 2001
The staff at the Miami Seaquarium love their rare turtles. In fact, they love them so much that a handful of employees decided a few months ago to eat one for lunch.
This delicious titbit of theme park scandal – revealed this week through a public records request – had officials at the Seaquarium scuttling for cover yesterday, blaming "human error" and assuring the public that nothing like it had ever happened before or was likely to occur again.
Admittedly, the 800lb leatherback turtle at the centre of the controversy was already dead when it was turned into stew. But the creature, which was half-mangled in a collision with a boat last April, was brought to the park specifically to ensure respectful observation of the last rites as stipulated by state and federal endangered species laws.
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records, an assistant animal care supervisor identified as R. Stollmeyer asked his boss if he could take a few choice cuts home. Told he could, he made a stew and brought it into work to share with his colleagues.
The act broke just about every rule in the endangered species book. Florida law stipulates rare animals must be incinerated when they die and even then only after a thorough autopsy has been completed.
Two senior park staff members have been reprimanded.
"This is the absolute height of stupidity," said Russ Rector of the Dolphin Freedom Foundation and a frequent critic of the Seaquarium. "We're changing the name to the Miami Seaquarium and Barbecue."