This is how they try to rescue a stranded whale 0:44
(CNN) --
A sick dolphin stranded on a Texas beach has died after beachgoers reportedly tried to push it back into the water so they could swim with it and ride on top of it, the nonprofit says. for-profit Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
"She was eventually stranded and further harassed by a mob of people on the beach, where she later died before rescuers could reach the scene," the network wrote in a Facebook post.
Basic guide for those who travel for the first time with their pets and need a passport
Quintana Beach County Park officials said the animal was washed up on the shoreline south of Houston on Sunday night.
According to Brazoria County, park staff were called in to keep the public away from the dolphin, but it died before Galveston rescuers arrived.
"By then, the perpetrators were gone and the animal was dead," Quintana Beach County park officials said, calling the event "a tragedy."
A sick dolphin stranded in Quintana Beach, Texas, south of Houston.
The dolphin was taken for a necropsy, a non-human autopsy, to see why it had been stranded, the county said.
advertising
The nonprofit marine mammal group says people should not swim or interact with a stranded dolphin or whale, or try to push them back into the sea.
Regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibit feeding and harassing marine mammals in the wild.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which works with the Texas nonprofit, says people should stay at least 150 feet away from such creatures.
NOAA officials said they were aware of the dolphin's death and are seeking information about it.