This past weekend, Snooty, the world’s oldest captive manatee, died in a tragic tank accident at the age of 69. Now, a new petition in Bradenton, Fla., is calling for a memorial to Confederate veterans to be replaced with a statue of beloved Snooty.

As of this afternoon, a recently created Change.org petition urging Manatee County legislators to go forward with the Snooty statue movement has garnered more than 4,780 signatures. The petition is the brainchild of local resident Anthony Pusateri.

“Snooty the Manatee has been a symbol of Bradenton, Fla., for almost 70 years. He suddenly passed away on July 23, 2017, and was the oldest living Manatee on record in the world,” Pusateri wrote on Change.org. “Subsequently, there is a Confederate memorial statue that stands directly in front of the old courthouse just blocks away from the aquarium where Snooty resided. To honor Snooty’s legacy as a positive icon in Bradenton, I propose that the negative symbol of racism and oppression that is the Confederate monument be relocated and replaced with a statue of Snooty the Manatee.”