Opinion: Manatees no longer cute? What's the world coming to?

Two days ago, they were cuddly cartoon characters with adorable little names like Snooty and Whiskers, and you had to wonder when Mote Marine's latest study would confirm what we suspected all along: That the lovable manatee is full of puffy marshmallows and bleeds chocolate syrup.

Not that you had to tell anyone around here – we have a county named after the big galoots, after all – but the manatee is so dang adorable that the profiteering extends far beyond the aquariums that keep them captive.

Google it. You can buy manatee scratch-and-sniff stickers. Manatee Christmas cookie-cutters and coloring books. "Just-a-girl-who-loves-manatees" socks. T-shirts with a little manatee hugging a sunflower. Backpacks, bedspreads and buttons that say: "life is better with manatees" and yes, or at least we thought, life is better with manatees … unless, apparently, you are a manatee.

Then life ain't so grand.

Because what happened at Mote Marine was jarring.

And to those of us non-scientists who have been spoon-fed how poke-in-the-belly cute the manatee is, rather shocking.

Last April, a male manatee named Hugh died and it saddened everyone at Mote Marine, not to mention the people in a community who grew up with him. Just look at that face when Hugh was doing circus tricks like picking the winner of the Super Bowl each year. The aw-shucks cuteness of Hugh is the very thing that made his death feel even worse.

On Monday, the Herald-Tribune reported how Hugh actually died. Turns out, according to a necropsy, he suffered a 14.5-centimeter hole in his colon, among other injuries, from a sexual encounter with a much larger male.

This is not supposed to happen with the Pillsbury Dough Boys of the Sea. They are supposed to wiggle their whiskers and grant wishes, not kill other manatees by having sex with them. If anything, it is up to us, the selfish and irresponsible human population, to kill them with our propeller blades.

An expert's take: Manatee expert with 50 years of experience said Hugh's sex injuries are 'incredibly rare'

What to know: USDA report indicates how Mote Marine's Hugh the manatee died. Here's what we know.

Happy birthday to Hugh: Mote Marine celebrates manatee Hugh's birthday in Sarasota

Now, after this sea cow's horrific death at the hands of another sea cow, how can anyone look at one of these lovable lugs the same way?

This is like being a little kid and seeing Santa Claus crack open a tall boy in the parking lot between shifts at the mall.

Making it worse, the United States Department of Agriculture says Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium could have prevented this loss. Mote Marine, for its part, disputes that assertion.

Who wants to point the finger at Mote Marine? With all its scientific research and studies conducted over the years, Mote has made enormous contributions to the understanding of sea life and has been a tremendous asset and source of pride to this community.

But maybe that's precisely why it's so hard to give Mote a pass on Hugh's death at age 38. For all the research the facility has done, shouldn't someone at Mote have realized that a male manatee was capable of doing this to another male manatee?

If not, then Mote has made a major breakthrough in the understanding of the manatee. Unfortunately, at the expense of a manatee.

Many people in the area have probably encountered manatees mating at some point. From all accounts, it appears to be a pretty intense ritual, with multiple male manatees surrounding one female in the hopes the female will choose the male.

According to experts, males can go after other males while waiting, and the female sometimes tries to hide from the persistent males because it gets so bad.

If nothing else, this horrible story again emphasizes what humans just don't want to grasp: that animals are animals with animal instincts, no matter how cute and cuddly and full of pixie dust we think they are.

Indeed, Hugh's death means the myth of the manatee has been tarnished a bit.

Its shift at the mall has ended.

If you are looking for a manatee now, it may be in the parking lot having a cigarette with Santa.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: The myth of the cuddly sea cow has been tarnished by terrible death