Yahoo – AFP,
6 Aug 2014
Washington (AFP) - Animal rights group PETA posted a $15,000 reward Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of a shirtless man seen kicking a squirrel off the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Fog drifts
over parts of the Grand Canyon, Arizona on May 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Mladen
Antonov)
|
Washington (AFP) - Animal rights group PETA posted a $15,000 reward Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of a shirtless man seen kicking a squirrel off the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Video of
the unidentified male luring the squirrel to its widely-assumed death went
viral earlier this week on YouTube, which has since taken it down.
"It is
imperative to find anyone who commits sadistic and violent acts against a
vulnerable being," said PETA director Martin Mersereau in announcing the
reward.
"Animal
abusers are bullies and cowards who look to victimize the most vulnerable,
defenseless individuals available to them -- human or nonhuman -- and this man
must be caught as soon as possible," he added.
It's not
known when the low-quality video was made, but National Parks Service (NPS)
spokeswoman Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski said it appears to have been shot along the
Grand Canyon's heavily-touristed South Rim section.
"It's
an ongoing investigation," she told AFP by telephone, adding that the man
and a second, similarly bare-chested male seen in the 15-second video
"could be long gone."
One of
America's greatest natural wonders, the Grand Canyon National Park gets nearly
five million visitors a year. Rules strictly forbid the feeding of its varied
wildlife.
In the
video, the man -- wearing dark shorts, a straw hat and no shoes -- is seen
offering food to the squirrel, with the second man in boxer shorts in the
background with a camera.
The man
lures the unsuspecting rodent to the edge, then slips a running shoe onto his
left foot and gives it a swift kick into the air and into the canyon, which is
one mile (1.6 kilometers) deep and up to 18 miles (29 kilometers) wide.
In the
United States, harassing wildlife is a federal offense that can result in six
months in prison or a fine of up to $5,000.
Britain's
Daily Mail newspaper quoted one Jonathan Hildebrand, who supposedly shot the
video, as saying he had no part in the incident and did not know the two
individuals.
"All I
know is that they were French," he was quoted as saying, while PETA said
"the perpetrator is rumored to be French or French Canadian."
Shedlowski,
who could not recall any similar incident in the past, said: "As far as
our investigation is concerned, they are two individuals."
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