People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission for "unfair business practices" over alleged incidents at SeaQuest Aquarium locations across the country, including the Roseville, Minnesota location.

"Specifically, SeaQuest exhibits wild animals, who are inherently unpredictable, in settings that authorize and encourage the public—and particularly children—to interact with them, which creates a heightened risk of unavoidable and substantial physical injury to the millions of people reportedly frequenting SeaQuest’s facilities across the country," the filing says.

A two-toed sloth named Flash allegedly bit a guest during an encounter at the Roseville location in 2019. As a result, PETA says the sloth was quarantined for 30 days due to rabies concerns.

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In addition to the sloth bite, PETA says the Roseville SeaQuest location has "lax supervision," saying "In 2021, the USDA cited SeaQuest Minnesota for failing to have a readily identifiable attendant present at all times during public contact with animals: an area housing two pigs, two wallabies, and two rabbits lacked public barriers and allowed contact between animals and the public without an attendant present."

Wallaby (Stock Photo) James Wainscoat/Unsplash
Wallaby (Stock Photo) James Wainscoat/Unsplash
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Further, PETA says that the aquarium says that the Minnesota Department of Health diagnosed "a capybara and coati with ringworm, a bird with chlamydia, and wallabies with toxoplasmosis."

Capybara (Stock Photo)/Unsplash
Capybara (Stock Photo)/Unsplash
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The MDH specifically called out SeaQuest’s party room interactions as creating “the perfect opportunity for disease transmission because you have numerous children, food and drink present, and no handwashing in the room," PETA said in its filing.

For its part, SeaQuest in Roseville has over 4,400 reviews on Google with an average of 4.7 stars.

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