A small group of protesters are looking to make a difference at the East Idaho Aquarium
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Chanting protesters lined the walkway in front of the aquarium for two hours today, advocating for the animals inside.
Less than 3 weeks ago Local News 8 reported the story of a PETA and nearly a dozen other former employees.
Who claimed the aquarium was responsible for hundreds of deaths every year.
After a month-long investigation, talks with the aquarium, and delving into documents filed with the United States Department of Agriculture.
Local News 8 found that over 700 animals died in 2021 alone.
According to the protesters, their goal is to educate the people who support and donate to the aquarium about what's really going on inside.
Drake Plaizier one of the protesters said "They've demonstrated that they've gone against laws and have criminally acted in, in their treatment of these animals, in the name of profit. I didn't always think about how my dollar was affecting animals when I went to places like this before. So we're just out here educating those people, and we hope that the sponsors of the Idaho Aquarium, as well as donors, would, would think about them, think twice about where their money is going and what it really support.”
Despite the protest, the aquarium did see several visitors throughout the day.
Local News 8 did reach out to the aquarium director, Arron Faires for comment on the protest.
However, so far we have received no response.
In our initial investigation, our station received a call from the vice president of the aquarium board.
He claimed that PETA whistleblower Kris Laswell was "a disgruntled former employee" and that "his complaints to PETA were untrue."
Today Lasswell told Local News 8 he’s inspired that the community cares about the animals as much as he does.
"I'm vindicated in the fact that I'm not alone in this. And now there are people in the community that are part of this team. And then even further more, right. I have I'm being my masters in marine biology and sustainability management. Right. And then on top of that, I'm actually going to be starting a job as a professor here within the next couple of weeks," said Laswell.
For our original investigation into the aquarium go here.
