Environmental activists are calling on the Venezuelan government to prohibit the capture of Amazon river dolphins from the Orinoco River, after four of the animals died between January and April as the result of contaminated water in their pools at the aquarium in Valencia, an industrial city west of Caracas. "The Valencia city government’s plan to take specimens of this endangered species that are living wild in Aguaro-Guariquito National Park (in central-south Venezuela) to place them in captivity, where they will likely die, is horrific," Nathalie Castillo, president of the Asoguau Foundation, told Tierramérica.

"We are calling on the Ministry of Environment to deny permission for these captures," said Castillo. The World Society for the Protection of Animals has endorsed the campaign.