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Did Argentine Aquarium Work Sea Lions To Death?

Sea lion and Buenos Aires Zoo trainer — Photo: Laura Gravino/Zoológico de Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES — Zoo and aquarium shows may make kids smile, but some animal rights activists say it basically amount to slave labor. The debate returns after two sea lions recently died in the Buenos Aires Zoo within three days of each other, and activists suspect at least one death was from the stress of doing too many water shows in the Zoo's aquarium space.

Argentine daily Clarin reports that members of the animal rights group Sin Zoo said one sea lion died last month after doing 15 shows in a day, while the other was possibly being overfed by spectators. Their trainers insist they had not noticed any of the seals eating differently.

Sin Zoo spokeswoman Malala Fontán told Clarín that on July 26 one of the group's activists stood at the gates of the aquarium and counted the sea lions' shows. "Exactly 15," Fontán said. "People inside then said that one of the little ones collapsed, and all this when they had sent the vet on holiday. They don't care about anything."

Fontán dismissed the idea of the spectacles being "educational" programs for children, and said they constitute shows involving animals, which the city banned in 2006. She said the NGO lodged 30 complaints with local authorities, and "none led to an inspection."

An aquarium spokesman, Fernando Peralta, said that "it is not uncommon for animals to die for one or other reason," though in this case "we do not know what happened exactly." Test results to determine the causes of death will need a month, he said.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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