<\/p>\n
The San Antonio Aquarium on Bandera Road.<\/p>\n
Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com<\/p>\n
The Leon Valley City Council<\/a> passed controversial amendments to an ordinance governing animal facilities on Tuesday, August 4. The move comes a year after the area\u2019s San Antonio Aquarium came under fire after a child was bruised during one of its giant Pacific octopus interactions.<\/p>\n City Council members unanimously approved<\/a> changes to Chapter 2, \u201cAnimal Control,\u201d of the Leon Valley Code of Ordinances<\/a> but removed subsections \u201cI\u201d through \u201cK\u201d of Section 2.01.027, which address pet shop requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Experts told MySA the common octopus sighting isn’t that uncommon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Padre Island Madre<\/p>\n City Council member\u00a0Rey Orozco<\/a> told attendees, \u201cBasically, what it says is we’re not closing anybody down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe aquarium is safe. We just have to work on defining the language for the aquarium,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One such change that drew backlash from speakers at the meeting allows entities to own prohibited animals, such as poisonous reptiles and venomous species. Specifically, it amends Sec. 2.01.001 to state that any animal prohibitions in the section won\u2019t apply to zoological gardens\/parks, aquariums, educational animal exhibition facilities, and other places.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Another change expands Sec. 2.01.016, allowing aquariums, educational animal exhibition facilities (a new definition under the passed amendment), and other select facilities to keep wild and dangerous animals on their properties, provided they meet certain requirements.<\/p>\n Representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) spoke at the meeting to oppose the amendment. Aquatic Animal Lead and Counsel Cydnee Bence<\/a> said the amendment creates unnecessary regulatory ambiguity, rewards bad actors and leaves the public at risk for serious injury.<\/p>\n PETA hosted a protest outside the San Antonio Aquarium on Sunday, August 11, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com<\/p>\n \u201cThis amendment seemingly only benefits one single entity, the San Antonio Aquarium, a roadside zoo with a shocking record of noncompliance both in public safety and animal welfare,\u201d Bence said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n PETA argued that federal and state oversight does not cover many of the animals kept by exhibition facilities.\u00a0Certain mammals and birds are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Meanwhile, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department only regulates the exhibition of certain native species.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bence said the timing of the amendment arrived just a few weeks after a report was filed with Leon Valley Animal Control about the San Antonio Aquarium \u201ckeeping dangerous, prohibited animals, including those who have already injured members of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n PETA Director of Captive Wildlife Rebecca Smudzinski<\/a> echoed similar concerns and cited an incident involving\u00a0Bexar County resident Britney Taryn, who also spoke during Tuesday\u2019s meeting. Last summer, Taryn brought her 6-year-old son, Leo, to the San Antonio Aquarium, and he participated in an encouraged interaction with a venomous giant Pacific octopus, an activity they had done several times.<\/p>\n During a July 2025 interaction, a giant Pacific octopus held onto 6-year-old Leo\u2019s arm<\/a> for about five minutes before three employees removed it. The child had suction marks for about a week.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The San Antonio Aquarium octopus left suction marks on the six-year-old child.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Britney Taryn An octopus at the San Antonio Aquarium sucked onto a child’s arm and wouldn’t let go until three employees stepped in.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Britney Taryn<\/p>\n “The bruises may have healed within weeks. What didn’t heal was our trust,” Taryn said during the Tuesday meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taryn said the amendment moves the community in the wrong direction regarding animal care and human safety and removes protections.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Smudzinski said although the proposed amendment requires a facility to maintain federal compliance, the San Antonio Aquarium owners have a history of failing to do so.<\/p>\n Crystal\u00a0Covino owns the San Antonio Aquarium, according to state records. She is the wife of former owner Ammon Covino, who was convicted in 2013 of conspiring to buy illegally harvested marine animals, according to a report from San Antonio Express-News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding the aquarium, a PETA spokesperson told MySA over email, “The city should be cracking down on this hellhole, not changing the law for it.”<\/p>\n Past USDA reports<\/a> cited the aquarium over conditions affecting rabbits during an air-conditioning outage<\/a> and the death of a porcupine after it escaped into another enclosure.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “Human handling is a significant\u00a0stressor for any wild animal because it forces them into interactions with unfamiliar individuals, making them feel unsafe and leading them to lash out,” Smudzinski said.<\/p>\n Another amendment defines an \u201ceducational animal exhibition facility\u201d as one that keeps animals primarily for public education. Bence argued that the definition is unclear and does not account for animals outside federal or state regulation.<\/p>\n Following the City Council decision, a PETA spokesperson tells MySA it is “considering all of its options, including exploring whether council members acted appropriately in their swift and scurrilous passage of this week\u2019s amendment.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n They added, “Anyone rightly worried about the changes to (Leon Valley’s) Animal Control Ordinance should tell city officials that the San Antonio Aquarium is an embarrassment and a hazard to the community, and urge their friends and family members to never visit any facility that forces animals into dangerous public encounters.”<\/p>\n MySA reached out to the San Antonio Aquarium but did not receive a response.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Antonio Aquarium on Bandera Road. Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com The Leon Valley City Council passed controversial amendments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[847,820,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-399463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mysanews","tag-mysastaff","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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