Up to $5,000 Reward Offered for Help Nabbing Koi Abusers
For Immediate Release:
July 24, 2023
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
PETA is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of five men who were recorded abusing koi fish in a privately owned pond. According to police, the men climbed over a fence to reach a pond on the 10th block of 77th Street on Saturday, July 1, at around 2:47 a.m. Security camera footage captured the men taking fish from the pond, throwing them around, slamming at least one onto the ground, using a shovel in the pond, recording themselves with the fish, and more. Video of the incident is available here.
Police describe the suspects as five males between the ages of 18 and 25.
MALE #1: White with short, light-brown hair, wearing a black T-shirt with yellow writing on the front and dark blue shorts and carrying a shovel
MALE #2: White and wearing a black baseball cap, a gray T-shirt, gray shorts, and white Crocs
MALE #3: Hispanic with black hair, wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts
MALE #4: Hispanic with brown hair, wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts, and gray sneakers
MALE #5: Hispanic with black hair, wearing a black T-shirt and gray pants and carrying a beach chair
“Fish feel pain and fear just as cats, dogs, and these young misfits do, yet the men laughed as they tormented these animals who were slowly suffocating in their hands,” says PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA urges anyone with information to come forward immediately before more animals are hurt or killed.”
Police are investigating but currently have no leads, so PETA is asking for the public’s help in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Anyone who can identify any of the suspects in the video should contact PFC E. Rhode at [email protected] or the Ocean City Police Department at 410-723-6610. Anonymous tips may be left by calling 410-520-5136 or by electronic submission at https://oceancitymd.gov/oc/departments/police/crime-tips. Please reference case number 2023-00-2813.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
