Whistleblowers allege animal mistreatment and mass deaths at East Idaho Aquarium

IDAHO FALLS — Six former employees say the East Idaho Aquarium seriously mistreated many animals in its care, which resulted in more than 2,000 animal deaths in the past five years. Aquarium management says the accusations don’t tell the full story.

The whistleblowers are speaking publicly about their experiences at the aquarium and have contacted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) with concerns about overcrowding, inadequate care for sick fish and a high mortality rate.

“We’re the voice for the animals,” said former husbandry team member Erika Dillon, who worked for the aquarium for six months starting in August 2023. “They can’t speak for themselves. … It was the safety and well-being of the animals that I just was extremely concerned about and still am.”

East Idaho Aquarium Executive Director Arron Faires acknowledges the aquarium’s “growing pains” in the past but said the facility has made dramatic improvements in the last two years, reducing annual animal deaths by more than 73% between 2021 and 2023.

“We put a huge focus on the health of the animals,” he said. “We take those numbers very seriously. … The reality of it is that we have lost those animals, but we are not losing them in those numbers anymore.”

The aquarium, which has operated for seven years at 570 East Anderson Street, is home to 2,143 animals and 204 species. More than 100,000 annual visitors can touch and feed stingrays, giant river fish, saltwater fish, trout, iguanas and more.

EastIdahoNews.com spent weeks conducting extensive interviews with Faires, current and former aquarium employees and volunteers to discuss the allegations. We also spoke to the aquarium’s veterinarian, Dr. Nicole Seda-Boone of Eagle Rock Veterinary Clinic, along with regulatory agencies and staff at other aquariums for context.

“The aquarium puts in a large amount of effort to provide appropriate care for their animals,” Seda-Boone wrote to EastIdahoNews.com.

During EastIdahoNews.com’s visits to the aquarium, we observed that the animals appeared healthy and the exhibits were clean, interactive and well-kept.

Despite that, former employees and volunteers say there were significant problems. Parakeets being stepped on during feedings with visitors, mass stingray die-offs, repeated malfunctioning tank equipment and three dead baby sharks are among the major allegations.

EastIdahoNews.com has been hearing from former aquarium employees about problems for several years. However, most tipsters wanted to remain anonymous and declined to speak on the record.

But in June, EastIdahoNews.com received a 16-page declaration from former aquarium employee Kristopher Lasswell with 56 accusations, 55 photographs and 15 videos, which he submitted to PETA, documenting what he considered to be significant issues resulting in animal neglect, disease and death at the aquarium.

On Sept. 17, PETA sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, requesting an investigation into “numerous Animal Welfare Act violations” concerning the birds in this facility.

PETA also alleges that 2,028 fish and other animals died between June 2019 and September 2022, citing records the aquarium submitted to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which our reporters have reviewed.

Whistleblower allegations

The declaration’s author, Lasswell, worked for three months as the East Idaho Aquarium’s lead aquarist from Aug. 25 to Dec. 17, 2023, after graduating from university two months earlier in biology.

“Throughout my employment, I raised concerns multiple times about health and welfare issues with many of the animals. I believe I was let go because of this,” Lasswell wrote.

EastIdahoNews.com requested an interview with Lasswell but he responded that he is now an employee for another news media company and has a noncompete agreement. However, we spoke with several other former employees involved in the creation of the declaration. The report focuses primarily on Lasswell’s observations but also includes accounts from a former animal curator, freshwater lead, saltwater lead and members of the husbandry team about events between March 2021 and January 2024.

In the declaration, Lasswell and the other whistleblowers report dozens of instances of animal death and neglect.

On Sept. 8, 2023, a mother blackfin shark gave birth to four baby pups in the shark tank. At the advice of professionals from the Shedd Aquarium, the baby sharks were removed from the tank to protect them from being eaten by the mother and two male sharks.

They were added to the stingray exhibit, the only other tank in the aquarium large enough to provide space for the sharks. However, within three weeks, three of the baby sharks died.

Lasswell said the aquarium has also experienced four mass stingray die-offs. He cited disease and tank conditions as contributing factors.

A representative from another aquarium in the western United States reviewed the loss logs from 2019 to 2022.

“The frequency and the excessiveness of it was troubling … just the volume of an entire tank going down in a single day and not just one time, but multiple tanks within a month,” said the individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lasswell also reported unexpected deaths among the aquarium’s birds. New cockatiels added to the aviary were not tested for psittacosis or parrot fever, he claimed.

Other times, young parakeets would fall out of their nests 10 to 17 feet above the aviary floor. These were typically placed in the quarantine area upstairs, where they often died, as they could not eat independently and the aquarium didn’t have enough staff to consistently feed them, he said.

Lasswell described “a tank of moon jellyfish being sucked up by a filter,” poison dart frogs having seizures and quarantine tanks for sick fish that he said lacked sufficient filters.

He claims sick fish (except sharks and rays) did not receive the same priority for treatment or veterinary care as mammals or birds because the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not regulate fish.

Other former employees had similar observations, describing crowded, sometimes unsafe conditions.

“There were many animal deaths,” said one former husbandry employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Some of these animals didn’t look right. …They didn’t seem like they were thriving. They just were there.”

Another former husbandry employee first volunteered at the aquarium as a young teenager when it opened, helping build the exhibits.

“I thought I was finally getting to live out my childhood dream because, like I said, I grew up going to the ocean, going to aquariums, and what I experienced there (at the East Idaho Aquarium) was not a dream,” she said. “That was a nightmare.”

Amber Wachter, who is not one of whistleblowers listed in Lasswell’s document, volunteered at the aquarium for four months in 2021. She reached out independently to EastIdahoNews.com about issues at the aquarium.

During her time there, she said the iguana exhibit would contain up to seven iguanas, was too small of an enclosure and the lizards occasionally escaped, with one drowning in the River Giants exhibit.

“It was very normal for (an iguana) to be missing and for the staff to tell me that they would be upstairs being taken care of, and I would not be confident that they would be coming back,” she said.

Former staff said electrical equipment in the tanks shocked them regularly when they changed filters. They described slipping on stairs and occasionally being bitten by the animals.

“I feel like they expanded too great without the funds to back them up,” Wachter said.

The declaration contains several dozen other complaints ranging in severity.

All of the former workers we interviewed were short-term employees who were employed at the aquarium for six months or less.

PETA gets involved

The reports of 2,028 animal deaths were startling enough to attract the attention of PETA, which has worked with various whistleblowers over the past few months.

In its letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, PETA accused the aquarium of “reportedly ignoring its veterinarian’s recommendation that newly acquired birds be tested for psittacosis, reportedly underfeeding parakeets and cockatiels used in public encounters, not providing adequate housing or food for young chicks, which often resulted in their deaths, and reportedly freezing neonate birds who fall out of their nests.”

EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Idaho Fish and Game to verify if they are investigating.

Fish and Game spokesman Matt Pieron said, “(East Idaho Aquarium is) a permitted facility, and they are permitted by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Currently, to date, their permit is in good standing.”

The office did not comment on whether it had received any complaints.

Idaho Fish and Game administers permits for facilities like aquariums and reviews animals in captivity and the import and export of animals to such facilities, Pieron said. The department can perform facility inspections at its discretion.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture responded by saying it “do(es) not comment on pending litigation.” It’s unclear if there is any litigation underway in this case.

Andre Bell, a spokesman for the department, wrote, “Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service takes its mission to ensure the humane treatment of animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act very seriously. We continue to conduct inspections and work with facilities to ensure they are in compliance with regulations under the AWA.

“Our investigative process for individuals and/or businesses found out of compliance with the AWA may lead to an enforcement action such as letters of warning, monetary penalties, license suspensions and revocations.”

Aquarium reports significant improvements

But Faires, the facility’s founder, reports that the aquarium has implemented major changes to improve the health and well-being of its animals over the past two years.

“We did a major switch on how we teamwise took care of the animals,” Faires said.

The aquarium’s records and data from Idaho Fish and Game support his assertion.

In 2021, in a year of record growth during the pandemic, the aquarium reported 757 fish and animal deaths to Fish and Game.

By 2022, that number dropped to 418.

The aquarium improved again by more than 50% in 2023, when 204 animals died, 90 of which were small African cichlids in one tank.

In 2024 to date, the aquarium reports that 138 animals have died.

“So I think that (improvement)’s largely due to the team and the staff,” Faires said.

Additionally, Dr. Nicole Seda-Boone, the aquarium’s veterinarian, said some of the former employees’ claims about medical care for the animals are not accurate.

“The aquarium is more than willing to provide and has provided advanced veterinary care for their animals,” she wrote to EastIdahoNews.com.

She said the animals at the aquarium are healthy overall.

“The aquarium has been incredibly responsive to veterinary medical recommendations,” she wrote. “They are willing to perform diagnostics within reason, as well as any medical treatments.”

The need to treat sick or injured animals is evaluated by aquarium management, who forward cases to the veterinarian to determine if treatment or intervention is warranted. Seda-Boone visits monthly and said the aquarium “arranges immediate veterinary care should any medical issues arise in between.”

Seda-Boone cares for all types of animals, including “sharks, rays, fish, reptiles and amphibians,” not just birds and mammals.

She also said the aquarium “often takes in animals dumped by the general public.” These animals arrive in a variety of conditions.

“The aquarium puts in a large amount of effort to provide appropriate care for their animals,” Seda-Boone said. “… While there is always room for improvement, it is clear that they care deeply about the well-being of the animals in their care and are committed to ongoing development.”

Additionally, Faires said the aquarium had made significant investments in a computer system that monitors each tank’s water quality, temperature, pH levels, pumps, filters, valves and fans. The new system sends an instant notification to his phone if there is a problem and automatically activates backup fans or filters to maintain tank health and a safe environment for the animals.

“That was one of our real issues too, in those beginning years, is we’d have a pump go out, and you come in, and your whole tank is crashed because they didn’t have any oxygen,” Faires explained. “So if something does happen in the night, or the power cuts off, then we’re getting alarms, and we can run in and make sure the tank’s OK.”

Hiring practices are also changing at the aquarium. Faires said there is an increased focus on hiring people with real-world experience managing aquatic species, rather than just new university graduates.

The aquarium recently hired a former hobbyist with more than a decade of experience caring for saltwater coral reefs and fish.

“He’s been able to really take our saltwater exhibits to another level,” Faires said.

Response to allegations

Faires responded to every allegation EastIdahoNews.com brought up from Lasswell’s declaration. He said a number of the allegations were false or demonstrated partial understanding of the situation.

Faires described the birth of the baby blacktip reef sharks as one of the aquarium’s “greatest accomplishments.”

“For me, that was amazing and really proved (that) we must be doing something right because they’re feeling safe enough, comfortable enough to actually breed, whereas in other facilities they don’t,” Faires said.

But, he acknowledged that within three weeks, three of the sharks died.

One with a notched tail passed away two days after its birth. Another jumped out of the tank. Staff quickly rescued it, but it likely died from shock. A third later perished for unknown reasons.

The fourth baby shark survived and grew successfully for five months at the aquarium before he was acquired by the Aquarium of Boise, where he continues to thrive, Faires said.

Faires said the claims made by Lasswell and PETA about the cockatiels in the aviary are incorrect. He said the birds were tested by the vendor for parrot fever/psittacosis before he acquired them.

Additionally, all animal diets are approved by the veterinarian, he said, and are measured to ensure that the animals do not receive too much food or too little. That was confirmed by Seda-Boone, who is directly involved in diet decision making.

To reduce the number of birds falling in the aviary, Faires said employees have removed previously inaccessible nests and reduced the number of birds born by collecting the eggs and using them to feed larger fish or reptiles.

He said the aquarium is not freezing live baby birds. Dead animals are temporarily stored in a small freezer to preserve them until they are respectfully buried, he said.

He openly acknowledges the first five years of growth at the aquarium included mishaps.

Some fish die in transit before they reach the aquarium. Saltwater fish are very temperamental, he said, and other arrivals do not acclimate to their new environments while adjusting in the veterinary observation area.

Occasionally, a fish or animal carried a disease or parasite that infected entire tanks, or pumps would malfunction and crash whole ecosystems. Both those reasons, Faires said, were responsible for two of the mass stingray die-offs.

In response, the aquarium installed backup pumps and filters to provide redundancy should one piece of equipment malfunction.

The aquarium’s current team truly cares about its work, has a great attitude, and completes long lists and regimens daily to properly care for each animal, he reports.

Today, the aquarium’s fish populations have stabilized, and he said there is far less need to risk adding new fish to exhibits.

The improved care, equipment and methodology is paying off for the animals, guests and employees, Faires said.

Moving forward

Aquarium management says the facility has come a long way since it was renovated from an abandoned movie theater in 2017.

The facility also has numerous success stories, Faires said.

One underfed, 20-year-old alligator — donated to the aquarium as a rescue — has grown from 20 inches to 6 feet long in three years. Macaws donated in poor condition now develop full plumage in a humid, tropical environment. Numerous silvery trout dart in fresh water tanks for spectators, and bright clownfish play in healthy coral reefs maintained by the aquarium.

General Husbandry Curator Keli Despain said all 27 employees work hard to provide for the animals and make the aquarium a place where families to visit.

“They also all love working with the animals, taking care of them, making sure that they’re happy and having the enrichment that they need,” she said.

Faires encourages anyone with concerns about the facility to visit the aquarium, speak with him, observe the habitats and animals, experience it for themselves and form their own opinions. Learn more about the aquarium here.