Sickening moment tourist takes off with live dolphin from a beach

POLICE are looking for a man who picked up a beached dying dolphin and slung it over his shoulder, before packing it in a car and driving away.

POLICE in China are hunting a tourist who stole a dying dolphin from a beach by throwing it over his back and carrying it off.

Images show the smiling man in swimming shorts casually walking away with the poor animal slung over his right shoulder, The Sun reported.

According to the local marine patrol, witnesses saw the tourist approach the dolphin after it appeared to beach itself.

However, rather than rolling the stricken creature back into the waves the heartless thief decided to make off with it.

The man picked up the dolphin, which had become beached, and threw it over his shoulder. Picture: Asiawire/Australscope

Shocked beachgoers said the man approached the animal and then tossed it over his shoulder before walking off with a woman in tow.

“We received reports saying there was a dolphin stranded on the beach and it looked like it was about to die,” an official said.

“The man, thought to be a tourist on the island, was then seen to have carried the dolphin away to his car … he will be punished when he is identified.

“Dolphins are protected animals [in China]. Whether it was dead or alive, he should have called the authorities for help.”

The man casually carried the dolphin away as shocked beachgoers looked on. Picture: Asiawire/Australscope

The man was then seen driving off with the dolphin on Hailing Island off the coast Guangdong Province.

Chinese internet users were enraged over the video, which was widely circulated online.

“Is he going to boil the dolphin [for food]? This is simply disgusting,” one internet user wrote.

Another said: “These people are like savages. They should be punished and made to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan.”

This article originally appeared in The Sun and has been republished here with permission.