Legendary manatee Snooty, the first manatee born in captivity in 1948, recently passed away in an accident shorty after his 69th birthday. As a beloved animal and the record-holder for the oldest manatee in captivity, at least a few thousand people believe Snooty deserves a monument in his honor. The place? A local confederate monument.
Anthony Pusateri, the head of this campaign, writes in his petition to the Manatee County Commission:
“Snooty the Manatee has been a symbol of Bradenton, FL for almost 70 years. He suddenly passed away on July 23rd 2017 and was the oldest living Manatee on record in the world. Subsequently, there is a Confederate memorial statue that stands directly in front of the old courthouse just blocks away from the aquarium where Snooty resided.
To honor Snooty’s legacy as a positive icon in Bradenton, I propose that the negative symbol of racism and oppression that is the Confederate monument be relocated and replaced with a statue of Snooty the Manatee. By doing so, the Confederate monument could possibly be moved to a museum (or other more appropriate location) out of everyday public eye and a more positive symbol then take its place.”
The petition has gained a huge amount of public attention, to which Pusateri is grateful. He writes in a follow-up that he plans to submit it “until the end of this week just to see how many people we can get behind this cause” and finished by writing, “You all are beautiful and Snooty would be proud.”
Go make Snooty proud here.
(via BoingBoing, image: Change.org)
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