The Nigerian environment ministry said it will launch an investigation after a video surfaced of a group of men dragging a tied-up manatee along a dirt road.
In the footage the animal looks to be in great discomfort, flapping around as it is dragged by a rope around its tail for several metres.
The incident took place on 21 February in the oil-rich Delta region of the country, according to Blue Planet Society, an environmental campaign group who received the video.
In response to the video, Sharon Ikeazor, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Environment, strongly condemned the act on Twitter on Sunday.
She called it a “very distressing and distasteful” video, saying the animal being dragged to “a cruel fate by some ill informed youth”.
There are only 10,000 African manatees, which are largely herbivorous, left in the wild, according to data compiled in 2015 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Poor animal and I'm sure It's destined for the cooking pots.
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