The Great Schaghticoke Fair’s newest act for 2026 was supposed to be Sea Lion Splash, a trained-sea-lion show that tours fairs around the country. It isn’t coming, and the reason is a highway crash 1,100 miles away.
The crash
A little after 3 a.m. on Thursday, August 13, a tractor-trailer hauling three sea lions to the Missouri State Fair struck a concrete barrier on westbound Interstate 70 near mile marker 133 in Boone County, Missouri, east of Columbia. No other vehicles were involved. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s crash report, a 27-year-old Texas woman riding in the truck was taken to a Columbia hospital with moderate injuries; the driver, a 59-year-old Ohio man, was not hurt. A person with the show later told KOMU, the Columbia NBC affiliate, that one of those involved underwent surgery that morning.
The passengers nobody planned for made it through fine. Once responders realized what the trailer was carrying, they called in veterinarians from the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and the three sea lions were taken to the university’s Veterinary Health Center for evaluation. They were unhurt. “All sea lions are doing great this morning,” the Boone County Fire Protection District reported, and a state trooper’s photos of the morning’s most unusual patients made the rounds shortly after.
The ripple that reached Schaghticoke
The Missouri State Fair cancelled its Sea Lion Splash shows the same day. Two weeks later the ripple arrived here: the Schaghticoke Fair announced that Sea Lion Splash is off for 2026, that all the sea lions are okay, and that the fair expects to host them in 2027 instead.
The replacement fills the same days and showtimes: a Live Reptile Adventure Show, presented by the Wildlife Adventure Center and Wild America on Tour, with reptiles from five continents, hands-on audience participation, and, per the billing, help overcoming common fears. Like the sea lion show would have been, it is free with fair admission, and it is on the fair’s daily schedule several times a day, all six days. Our fair guide has the full rundown.
What the federal records say about the operator
Because the fair has said it expects to bring the sea lions in 2027, the operator’s public record is worth a look now rather than later. KOMU reviewed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspection records for Sea Lion Splash LLC, the Harper, Texas company that owns the animals, and reported the following:
- The company’s most recent inspection, on July 1, 2026, found zero non-compliance issues, and its 2026 record is clean.
- A December 2025 inspection recorded six non-critical issues involving veterinary care and habitat: enclosures needing repair, live uncovered electrical outlets and metal hose hooks within the animals’ reach, and bottles of insecticide and cleaning supplies stored on an open shelf above the washing station in the marine-mammal food preparation area.
- A March 2022 inspection recorded a critical citation: screws and bolts protruding into an enclosure. A sea lion had recently suffered a flipper laceration requiring veterinary care and was found dead in the enclosure four days later. Inspectors wrote that the exact cause of the injury was unknown but that the protruding hardware could cause such injuries.
A Missouri State Fair representative told KOMU the fair’s organizers had been unaware of that history when they booked the show.
None of this is a verdict. The current record is clean, inspections exist precisely so problems get found and fixed, and the animals in this month’s crash were cared for promptly and well. But it is the kind of public record a community can weigh calmly a year in advance, and we’ll revisit it when the 2027 booking is confirmed. In the meantime: the reptiles await, and the fair opens Wednesday.
Crash details from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Boone County Fire Protection District, via KOMU 8’s reporting; operator inspection history from KOMU’s review of USDA records. Cancellation and replacement details from the Missouri State Fair’s and Schaghticoke Fair’s announcements. Injury accounts differ slightly between the fair’s statement and the patrol’s report; each figure above is attributed to its source.
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