I'm an aquarium hobbyist in Houston, and was checking the Greater Houston Aquarium Club's Facebook page, where I saw a poster named Ammon Covino providing video of a new public aquarium he's constructing here in Houston. At first I was excited about the prospect of a new public aquarium in my hometown, but then thought "oh, no, is this one of those terrible SeaQuest aquariums (Texas already has one in Fort Worth, where my mother-in-law lives). I looked on their website and then their wikipedia page, and that's where I saw Ammon Covino was the founder of Seaquest, until he was convicted of illegally harvesting and trafficking animals in 2012. For those not familiar with SeaQuest Aquariums, they have been cited by both state and federal agencies for multiple violations related to animal welfare at multiple locations, a lot of the violations very recent.
I alerted the admins of the Houston Aquarium Club to his background and they removed his posts and banned him from the group, but unfortunately his new venture is on track to open soon:
Houston Aquarium and Animal Adventure
I alerted the admins of the Houston Aquarium Club to his background and they removed his posts and banned him from the group, but unfortunately his new venture is on track to open soon:
Houston Aquarium and Animal Adventure