Dolphin attacks trainer and drags her under water during show at controversial Miami Seaquarium, video shows

A video shows a dolphin dragging a trainer underneath the water at Miami Seaquarium. Last year, the USDA published a damning report on the water park.

• Video footage shows a dolphin at Miami Seaquarium attacking a trainer last weekend.
• A former veterinarian at the Seaquarium told local media that this was not an isolated incident.
• PETA denounced the Miami Seaquarium's "exploitation of dolphins" following a damning USDA report last year.

An audience member captured on camera the moment a dolphin turned violent and attacked a trainer last weekend at Miami Seaquarium.

Video footage of the incident, shared on TikTok, shows the trainer struggling to stay afloat as the dolphin, Sundance, drags her beneath the water.

Sundance, who has lived in captivity at Miami Seaquarium for his entire life, can then be seen ramming the trainer towards the pool's edge.

The trainer was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, according to Local10.com. Miami-Dade safety authorities were contacted as a precaution, the media outlet said, but the trainer did not appear to suffer any serious injuries.

Photographer Shannon Carpenter, from Kentucky, who filmed the episode, was visiting the show with her family when the dolphin appeared to become aggressive. "The kids were cheering and thinking this was neat. You could tell the adults knew something was wrong," she said, per the New York Post.

Miami Seaquarium did not respond to Insider's request for comment, but according to a statement provided to CBS News, an investigation concluded that the trainer had accidentally scratched the dolphin.

"A dolphin and trainer accidentally collided in the water on Saturday while performing a routine behavior as part of the Flipper Show. This was an uncomfortable interaction for both of them and the dolphin reacted by breaking away from the routine and striking the trainer," the statement said.

The dolphin was also not injured, per CBS News.

Jenna Wallace, a veterinarian who formerly worked at Miami Seaquarium, told Local10.com that she believes it was not an isolated incident.

"I have been told by previous veterinarians and staff that this animal had rammed another trainer in the abdomen," Wallace told the media outlet.

"When dolphins become aggressive like this, there's always some underlying thing," she continued.

Animal rights organization PETA denounced the "exploitation of dolphins" at Miami Seaquarium in a statement published on Tuesday.

"Time is up for the Miami Seaquarium, where long-suffering dolphins desperately need protection and workers are at risk," said the organization's general counsel for animal law Jared Goodman.

"PETA urges this abusement park to end its exploitation of dolphins by getting them to sanctuaries as quickly as possible so that they'd never be used in tawdry shows again and no one else would get hurt," the statement continued.

Miami Seaquarium was cited for numerous animal welfare violations in a 17-page report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) last June.

The report mentioned the feeding of rotten fish to animals, dolphins dying, pools being in disrepair, and inadequate care for the animals.

The Miami Seaquarium is also home to the orca Lolita who has been performing for audiences for 52 years. She has become the focus of a campaign to release her from her orca tank, the world's smallest, into a sea sanctuary in her native northeast Pacific, reported euronews.