Animal rights group calls for firing of South Florida Museum CEO after death of Snooty

One week after South Florida Museum officials confirmed that Manatee County’s beloved mascot Snooty drowned in his aquarium, at least one animal rights group is calling for heads to roll.

Florida Voices for Animals will stage a protest at the museum from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday demanding that the museum’s board of directors fire anyone who may be responsible for Snooty’s death, starting from the top down.

“We want the South Florida Museum Board of Directors to fire CEO Brynne Anne Besio and museum Provost and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Rodgers and every other employee that through their negligence attributed to Snooty’s death by drowning,” Denise Anderson, Florida Voices for Animals, said in a statement to the Bradenton Herald.

The museum is closed on Mondays, and officials did not immediately return a call for comment.

Anderson said she has sent letters to each board member individually expressing her group’s concerns and desire for justice.

“I look at it like if you sent your child to daycare and he died, why would the same people run it and be open for business the next day? They had Snooty in their care, and they are negligent and shouldn’t be showing up to work the next day like nothing happened,” Anderson said. “Even dog parks have gates you have to walk through. If that panel mysteriously lost all four bolts overnight, there should have been a second gate and we’d still have Snooty.”

Anderson said Florida Voices for Animals is being joined in the protest efforts by other animal rights groups, including the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, which will be emailing their membership about Saturday’s event.

“This is no memorial,” Anderson said. “This could have been avoided and they need to pay the piper. If we don’t do our jobs, we are out the door and these people had a job to look after Snooty. We aren’t going to let this go. I’m not saying every employee is responsible, because they are not, but there are those who are responsible.”

Florida Voices for Animals previously demanded that the museum allow a third-party agency to look into Snooty’s death. However, the museum had already taken that action prior to the organization releasing a statement.

Late last week, the museum announced it was working with Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership to form an outside committee consisting of manatee experts, including from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, to look into Snooty’s drowning and ensure the museum was following best practices.

Snooty died the night of July 22-23, after staff left the museum for the night. The panel to a plumbing access area had not been opened in five years and somehow became dislodged. Museum officials said the panel is “visually” inspected each day by divers.

Security cameras were unable to see how the panel became dislodged because the aquarium is kept dark at night to maintain as much of a natural habitat as possible, according to Jessica Schubick, communications manager for the museum.

On the morning of July 23, staff discovered Snooty missing from the main tank only to find him dead in the access area too small for the manatee to turn around and swim out. A 911 call on Sunday morning to the Bradenton Fire Department began with, “We have a problem.”

Originally, the museum had no intention to go to an outside agency, but officials reversed course and announced the third-party review.

On July 25, the museum held an emotional reopening, concentrating on consoling those who came to mourn with staff and trying to get on with business.

This story was originally published July 31, 2017 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Animal rights group calls for firing of South Florida Museum CEO after death of Snooty."