An aquarium at a Fort Worth mall long accused of animal cruelty has closed: SeaQuest Fort Worth, a marine-themed amusement at Ridgmar Mall, has shut its doors.

The SeaQuest Fort Worth, Texas location has removed their website, has reportedly placed a “closed to the public sign” on its door, and is now listed online as “permanently closed.”

The closing comes after PETA submitted a complaint to local authorities in August over whistleblower reports the group received from three former SeaQuest Fort Worth employees revealing that dozens of fish, including two sharks, perished at the seedy facility or during transport there.

The complaint prompted the Fort Worth Police Department to open a criminal cruelty-to-animals investigation into the disgraced mall aquarium.

“Champagne corks are popping at PETA now that this blight on beautiful Fort Worth has finally stopped exploiting animals and endangering the public,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director Molly Johnson in a release. “The SeaQuest chain is a scourge, and PETA will continue to call out its dreadful and deadly petting zoos until every location follows suit and closes.”

Prior to the closure, SeaQuest Fort Worth had racked up scores of citations under the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for failing to properly handle a sloth and a cat, both of whom bit visitors during interactions, and for a duck enclosure that was covered in feces and old food waste.

In 2019, the facility was cited for allowing dangerous handling of its animals by the public after there had been at least four incidents in which visitors were bitten or wounded at the facility.

In a January 2024 inspection, the facility was found to have numerous violations including dirty enclosures, accumulated feces, and an unsanitary food preparation area in which "the floor did not appear to have been cleaned in a very long time." A cramped enclosure for a porcupine provided little room for the porcupine to move around and wasn’t being cleaned frequently, making it impossible for the porcupine to avoid his own feces.

In March 2024, the facility ended up getting sued after a child was bitten. In August, whistleblowers reported the death of two sharks, Icarus and Achilles, who had been held in a tank too small for them, with poor water quality. The stress of their confinement affected them so severely that they stopped eating and died in May and June.

In response to the news, Humane Society of the United States state director Alex Gamez applauded the closure, stating, “another SeaQuest closing its doors is welcome news for the Humane Society of the United States, and we urge them to send all the animals neglected in their care to accredited sanctuaries, rather than to other SeaQuest locations or similar attractions."

"The horrific mall-based wild animal petting zoos are plagued with animal deaths, injured children and adults, and more than 100 federal Animal Welfare Act violations over the last five years, including most recently when customers were bitten by a sloth and Bengal cat during public interactions," Gamez said.

Unfortunately, SeaQuest is not the only facility of its kind, as there are hundreds of other places like it all over the country.

"While this may be the end of this SeaQuest location, we hope that the mall doesn’t allow another petting zoo to move into the space," Gamez said. "We urge the Ridgmar Mall and other shopping centers across the country to strongly reconsider ever hosting these cruel, inhumane exhibitions where animals are confined with no access to fresh air, sunlight or proper care, and are forced into stressful, inappropriate interactions with the public, day after day.”

SeaQuest CEO Vince Covino quit the beleaguered chain in August. Following pressure from the group, the chain's locations in Colorado, Connecticut, and Georgia have all closed. PETA has also helped stop SeaQuest from opening facilities in Florida, New York, and North Dakota.

In PETA’s campaign against SeaQuest Fort Worth, the group erected two sky-high billboards minutes from the facility, urging viewers to stay away — noting that sharks use between eight and 13 senses (way more than humans); that fish feel pain and have long memories; and that female ducks pick male ducks to mate with based on their dancing ability. Very human-like!