Visitors to animal sanctuary throw rocks at a seal and force it off a cliff.

St. Mary’s Seal Watch, an animal charity based in Newcastle in the United Kingdom, has shared footage of visitors to the protected area where they are based throwing rocks at a sea and eventually forcing it to jump off a nearby cliff.

Screenshot St Mary's Island Nature Reserve
Three visitors to St. Mary’s Island Nature Reserve were seen moving a sign and then proceeding to film themselves as they threw rocks at one of the seals that lives in the protected area. The seal can be seen to panic and become distressed at the rocks and moved itself to the edge of the cliff to avoid the hail of stones. Eventually, the animal became so frightened that it jumped off the cliff to escape its tormentors. According to volunteers at the center, the visitors then began to harass and hurt other animals in the sanctuar Fauna Ecosystem

According to the volunteers who work at the animal sanctuary, this is not the first time that they have had to deal with this kind of malicious behavior towards animals in the past couple of months. They have claimed that they have received numerous reports from other visitors to the beautiful sanctuary reporting that other visitors have been attacking and harassing the animals.

The volunteers wrote on their Facebook page that the video has not been shared in order to name and shame the individuals involve but rather to raise awareness of the serious problems that the animals face as they live in the protected area. They also point out that while cruel behavior like that depicted in the video is fairly rare, the animals also suffer from visitors carrying out recreational activities in the sensitive areas of the island which disturbs their natural habitat and prevents the animals from thriving as they should.

Volunteers at the island have asked that visitors keep a safe and respectful distance from the animals at all times in order to ensure that this safe sanctuary remains a haven for some of Britain’s most beautiful and rare creatures.