After a group of migrant men were filmed parading around with a dead baby bottlenose dolphin in Ceuta, a polarized public debate has erupted and an environmental organization is pushing for Spanish prosecutors to investigate the case as a criminal offense.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, videos recorded at Trampolín beach showed several people holding a dead baby bottlenose dolphin up as if it were a trophy. It was bleeding above one of its eyes. A Spanish influencer recorded the entire incident, saying they killed the dolphin.
“They killed a dolphin…. They say they killed it. Over there, as you can see, they kill protected species,” said the influencer.
🇪🇸🐬 JUST IN: "They killed a dolphin. They say they killed it. Over there, as you can see, they kill protected species."
Some leftists across X and other platforms are claiming these migrants are "allowed to fish."
However, killing a dolphin in Spain and the EU is illegal. It… https://t.co/AB9RSWLRKe pic.twitter.com/MXQEEXpTYM
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 4, 2026The calf had been swimming close to shore in an area that has functioned for weeks as an informal settlement for the migrants who arrived in late July. Local reporting and an environmental group say the animal was taken from the water and later appeared dead or dying.
The Ceuta-based association Defense of Urban Trees, Biodiversity, and the Environment (DAUBMA) filed a complaint with the Civil Guard the following day. In its statement, the group said the calf arrived near shore alive and disoriented, was forcibly removed from the sea, and was struck on the head with a stick.
🇪🇸🔴 5 migrants tried to gang rape a 12-year-old girl as she screamed for help, said locals in Ceuta who stopped the attack.
"There were five against a 12-year-old girl. She was a little girl, they were taking off her pants. She was screaming, screaming, screaming. She was… pic.twitter.com/g97pj8phUR
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) August 25, 2026DAUBMA submitted photographs and videos that, it said, show a bleeding wound near one eye and people attempting to wipe blood from the animal. The association asked for those visible in the footage to be identified, for an investigation to be opened, and for the case to be sent to Spain’s Environmental Prosecutor’s Office.
The association argued the events could constitute both animal cruelty resulting in death and an offense against a protected species.
🇪🇸🔴BREAKING: A Moroccan migrant wearing only his underwear snuck into a sleeping Spanish woman's bed early in the morning in Ceuta.
"I live in the center on the fifth floor, mind you… He jumped onto my bedroom balcony. He came into my bedroom and got into my bed. I thought… pic.twitter.com/8cs7rasXSv
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) August 10, 2026A beach-cleaning worker from the company Ecoservicios who was present told the group on the beach that they could not treat the animal as a catch and that environmental specialists should be called. After that intervention, the group tried to return the calf to the water. Some accounts say it already appeared lifeless.
Bottlenose dolphins are strictly protected under EU and Spanish law. Intentional capture, harm or killing of cetaceans is prohibited. Recreational fishing licenses issued in Ceuta cover only specified fish and cephalopods; dolphins are not among them. The incident therefore cannot be treated as a case of ordinary and legal fishing.
As of Sept. 4, no official results from an examination of the body, nor any arrests, had been made public.
A Change.org petition calling for identification of those involved also circulated quickly, according to El Faro Ceuta. The beach itself remains crowded with people living in makeshift migrant camp conditions, adding to the tension that has marked Ceuta since the July crossings. DAUBMA and the local marine-conservation group CECAM have used the episode to repeat earlier complaints about repeated case of mutilated dolphins and turtles stranded on the beach which they attribute in part to illegal drift nets. Those earlier cases are separate from Wednesday’s events but form the backdrop against which the association is now pressing authorities to treat this death as a criminal matter rather than an isolated disturbance.
The Civil Guard has the complaint, video evidence, and witness reports. It remains unclear whether an animal-cruelty or wildlife-protection case will be opened.
In the meantime, pressure is growing on the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, with mass protests involving tens of thousands of Spaniards taking place in cities across the country over the weekend.
