LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For many Las Vegas locals, SeaQuest at the Boulevard Mall presents the potential for some unique family fun. But the interactive aquarium is no stranger to controversy.
Former employees, animal advocates and veterinarians have claimed for years that SeaQuest locations across the country are exploiting animals to turn a profit.
As part of a national ABC investigation that began Tuesday on Good Morning America, ABC News Live and Nightline, we put our local SeaQuest back under the microscope, revealing new allegations, violations and lax oversight.
"Every day it broke my heart," said Lillian Gagnon, the fifth former SeaQuest employee we've spoken to on camera since we began investigating in early 2019.
"It was nothing short of traumatizing for me. I still have nightmares about the things that I saw there."
She saw and documented things like a turtle with shell rot, an iguana with scale rot, birds missing most of their feathers, and many sick and injured reptiles.
"And the management was doing bare minimum — taking them to the vet sporadically or just letting them waste away in their cages."
Gagnon worked at SeaQuest Las Vegas as part of the Birds, Reptiles and Mammals team. She quit in early 2020 and now works as a veterinary technician in Reno.
"The reason I had left was because of the treatment of the animals," she said.
Of everything she says she witnessed, one incident from the summer of 2019 stands out.
"I found a bird that was trapped between the aviary wall and the wall to the back," she recalled.
She says she asked her manager to have someone open up the wall to get the bird out.
"And he told me to leave it to die. And I listened to that bird die for four days. I listened to it call for help for four days until it didn't make any noises anymore."
Her concerns and experiences are echoed in formal complaints filed with Clark County Animal Protection Services and by former employees we spoke to for our initial investigation.
"It was really disgusting to see how these animals were pretty much made into attractions and just numbers on a sheet. And so when one died, it was just replaced with another one," said former employee Chris Stansell in 2019.
"I especially want people to know this is not a happy place. These are not happy animals," added former employee Marc Heller, who we also spoke to for our initial investigation in 2019.
Part of SeaQuest's appeal is the offer of a hands-on experience: the chance to feed, pet and swim with some of their exotic creatures.
Guests pay an extra fee for those interactions, but former employees say the animals are paying the highest cost.
One who asked to remain anonymous said "we've had bites from coatis (small mammals similar to a raccoon) because they were so hungry."
Speaking about the iguanas, Gagnon added:
"These animals were terrified of humans and would not interact with them no matter what, so essentially they asked us to starve them. They told us to no longer feed the iguanas, that the guests were going to do primarily all of the feeding for the iguanas."
In September 2023, Clark County Animal Protection Services got a complaint about an emaciated iguana. It had to be euthanized in December after SeaQuest's veterinarian determined it had eaten gravel that caused a blockage in its digestive tract.
In addition, Gagnon says:
"They were shocked at one point that our stingrays were going missing. They're like, 'how could this happen?' I'm like, 'you're not feeding the nurse shark.'"
And speaking of sharks, "Apparently, guests were saying the sharks weren't eating out of their hands and they were upset by that, so they reduced the sharks' feedings from five times a day — which is proper — to three times a week. And the sharks started to try to bite guests," Gagnon added.
Medical records filed in a September 2023 lawsuit show a local three-year-old child had to go to Sunrise Hospital's emergency room after a shark latched onto his elbow during a feeding encounter.
Part 1: Seaquest accused by former employees, guests, animal advocates of exploiting animals for profit
Any time a guest's skin is broken, SeaQuest is required to report it to animal protection services. When asked, the county said our inquiry was the first they were hearing about it and confirmed SeaQuest did not file a report.
"I'm not surprised that they wouldn't report one on a guest," Gagnon said.
The shark bite wasn't the only recent unreported incident.
13 Investigates obtained video from a family who was visiting Las Vegas last March. In the video, after an employee tries to direct a wallaby to eat from the boy's hand, it lunges at the child's face.
That incident was also not reported to Clark County.
An incident at SeaQuest caught on camera: Wallaby lunges at a child's face
PETA reported it to the USDA — the federal agency that issues licenses for zoos and aquariums — and when government inspectors followed up, SeaQuest was cited for handling the wallaby "in a manner which posed a risk of harm to the animal and the public."
The USDA's record says the one attendant who was present for the feeding encounter did not create "sufficient distance or a barrier between the animal and the child to prevent potential injury."
"Wild animals are just that. They're wild. They're not your dog, they're not your cat. They can hurt people. They hurt children. It's not because they're intending to do it. They're wild animals, and a lot of times they just want to get away from you," said Humane Society of the United States president and CEO Kitty Block.
In the wallaby investigation, the USDA also found "there was no incident report made by staff" — which the federal agency requires —despite SeaQuest's claim in a statement to ABC that "all incidents, however minor, are meticulously documented."
In a text, the boy's father told 13 Investigates:
"After it happened, the staff had them exit the exhibit and just disappeared without comment."
Though not specifically in response to the wallaby incident in Las Vegas, SeaQuest told ABC that “guest and staff injuries are extremely rare, but if one does occur, [they] have standard protocols in place to address the injury and evaluate the overall safety around the occurrence.”
SeaQuest has ignored our repeated requests for an on-camera interview for this story. Citing scheduling conflicts for CEO Vince Covino, they also did not provide an interview to ABC, but as we've been detailing, they did answer some of the network's questions in a statement. In all our years of reporting, SeaQuest has never given us an on-camera interview.
In the company's statement to ABC, 13 Investigates found other discrepancies between SeaQuest's rhetoric and reality.
SeaQuest claims "there has never been a policy precluding employees from talking to regulators or authorities."
But Gagnon's employee documentation says "...You must not disclose any confidential information, per the terms of the non-disclosure document signed by you in our offer of employment package."
Although Gagnon believes she's not disclosing anything confidential to 13 Investigates, she says "I'm personally afraid to come forward myself, but I'm going to do it anyways because it's what's right."
A pending Federal Trade Commission complaint filed by PETA references several Las Vegas incidents, including a mother's report that her son's face and eye were scratched by a coatimundi and that an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital. It also cites encounters where a kinkajou bit an employee, and a small-clawed otter bit an employee during a presentation. That employee was Lillian Gagnon.
"I personally had gotten bit by the otters at least four times," Gagnon said. "They told us specifically — at least with the otters — if we reported that we got bit or a guest got bit, then our otters would be put down."
Gagnon did report the one bite she sustained during the otter interaction with guests after that injury landed her in urgent care.
"And the next time I returned to work, they suspended me."
Internal documents reveal she was ultimately disciplined for "animal and team member endangerment" and "failing to follow safety guidelines" because she was "sitting down during the interaction" and "not in a position where she could have quickly stood if she needed to."
When she returned from suspension, she was given a letter saying she could no longer work with any of the mammals.
"To tell us — and threaten us — that the animals that you raised since pups will be put down if you report this was... It was one of the most horrible things that an employer has ever told me."
And it's not necessarily true. When we asked Clark County, they said Animal Protection Services "would not direct an animal to be euthanized because of a minor bite or scratch."
"The otter that did bite me was Chip," said Gagnon, "and he was inherently aggressive and had bitten several other people on staff."
According to SeaQuest's website, despite Gagnon's bite report, Chip is alive and well and still interacting with paying guests.
In all, ABC's investigation found at least 76 times people reported being injured by the animals at various SeaQuest locations since the first one in Utah opened in 2016.
In the past five years, SeaQuest facilities were cited more than 80 times by the USDA for issues including human injury, potential disease hazards, and inadequate care of animals.
SeaQuest told ABC News that their number one priority is to ensure the health and safety of their animals. They say that they host millions of visitors each year, and “with hundreds of employees and thousands of animals, injury, and mortality, though very rare, exist.”
Here in Clark County, Animal Protection Services continues to receive complaints about poor conditions and animal welfare from guests.
In some cases, the agency found SeaQuest was already addressing the problems. In at least one, they had to require SeaQuest to get vet care for animals.
Part 2: Seaquest accused by former employees, guests, animal advocates of exploiting animals for profit
SeaQuest told ABC that each SeaQuest location has a dedicated veterinary team that does walkthroughs of all exhibits and enclosures.
Veterinary records the county gathered in 2023 document prairie dogs with giardia, a chinchilla with a persistent eye infection, and a Bengal cat with a fever and ear infection that the vet noted was showing signs of depression.
"I don't see anything changing on their part," said Gagnon. "I think they're just going to continue to run it as if it's a theme park instead of what it is — an establishment with hundreds of different lives that they're responsible for."
Clark County Animal Protection Services received more complaints in 2023 from multiple patrons. Reports included a vomiting sea otter, a rotten smelling shark tank with green water, filthy algae-filled overcrowded tanks, lethargic wallabies in poor condition, birds in poor condition, a stingray with a deep wound and no tail, and a rabbit that appeared to be dying.
County records show the USDA opened an investigation into the condition of the mammals.
"They keep operating when they get fines," said Block. "They keep operating when they're told to do something in a different way."
Why does she believes the USDA hasn't shut SeaQuest down?
"They're not using all the tools they have, but the tools they have are pretty meager. But they could do much more of the enforcement. They could shut them down, but they haven't."
13 Investigates discovered what could be considered lax enforcement by Clark County, as well.
"I don't feel like they (Animal Protection Services) have an accurate enough view. I feel like a lot of the times they'll speak to management and they won't speak to the employees," Gagnon said.
The agency's activity records show the county didn't follow up on some SeaQuest complaints for weeks or even months.
When we asked why, the county said: "Depending on the number of priority calls received, it may take longer to respond to lower priority calls," and that "some calls may be delayed and handled together" with SeaQuest's scheduled inspections, which are only twice a year.
SeaQuest passed its most recent full inspection in September. Clark County staff found the facility was clean, with no foul odors and enough staff. But the inspector did note some murky shark tanks and a separate concern in a back room. County records show the deceased animal freezer contained bodies labeled as far back as April 2023.
Since that inspection, Las Vegas customers have posted photos and Google reviews, continuing to complain that the animals are not adequately cared for. One customer posted several photos of empty water bowls in cages.
"I don't think (SeaQuest CEO) Vince (Covino) has the best interest of the animals at heart. I don't think he has the best interests of his employees at heart," Gagnon said.
The SeaQuest corporation is based in Boise, Idaho. As we previously reported, Covino's brother Ammon was sentenced in 2013 to a year in prison for the illegal trafficking of marine wildlife.
When ABC asked about that, SeaQuest wrote:
"Since being founded in 2016, Ammon Covino has not ever been, nor is currently, involved in any way with Seaquest, Seaquest LLC, or Seaquest holdings."
But according to the U.S. Department of Justice, that's false. In a November 2016 press release, the DOJ says:
"...Within five days of (Ammon) Covino's release from his most recent prison sentence, he again became involved in consulting and directing the development, construction, and exhibition details for two new aquarium facilities, located in Layton, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. Covino traveled to visit the facilities several times and lied to his probation officer regarding his travels."
As a result, in 2016, he was sentenced to eight more months in prison.
SeaQuest currently has seven locations across the country. That's down from nine after recent closures of locations in Connecticut and Colorado following numerous complaints and USDA citations.
PETA hopes the chain's other locations — including the one here in Las Vegas — will follow suit.
Animal advocacy groups are planning a protest against SeaQuest in front of the Boulevard Mall on Sunday, March 10.
