Monday 05 November 2018 | 10

Femke, the last shows before closing for winter

Femke, the last shows before closing for winter

Mis à jour le 25 January 2021

The last shows of the 2018 season at the Asterix park dolphinarium took place this weekend of November 3rd and 4th. It was only a few degrees above zero, and we are only in the autumn. Guama, Baïly, Beauty, Femke, Belize, Bahia, Aya and Cécil and the sea lions Gonzo, Kaï, Santo and Smack will find themselves locked up all winter in their tiny pools. In the freezing cold, Femke staring at the walls of her pool will stay there with the other dolphins and without Ekinox, her beloved son.

Hr blog

Saturday, November 3rd, 5 ° C at Plailly. It's eleven o'clock in the morning, and Femke and her companions who are in this misfortunate situation must participate in one of the last shows of the season. Exhibited thus, there to amuse the public and to perform for fish.

At the end of the season at the Asterix park, Femke seemed like "supercharged " for the show, just to deceive the public who are unconscious of what is actually being played out before their eyes. The dolphinarium tells us about "handling". For this last opening weekend of the year, Femke was put to work, solicited as ever before the stands, on which the freezing families sat trying to keep as warm as they could, the children bundled up under hats and scarves. But soon the show finished: the curtain. Once again, Femke became almost motionless on the surface, fixing her gaze sometimes on a plastic bottle or sometimes on the walls, her sadly sagging dorsal fin, a reflection of her life...

This year again, we never stopped to give warning about the personal story of Femke: her capture, her placing into a pool between four walls, her health problems, the separation from her little Ekinox, which is now two years, and her depression that followed... The management of the dolphinarium denies this evidence.

Yet since the spring, we have filmed her many times. The reports from internationally renowned scientific experts are alarming. She seems to have given up living in the full sense of the word. Out of sight, since last year, no sign of improvement of her psychological state. We launched a petition to have her reunited with her son, whose exploitation has just been recognized as illegal and that both are being transferred to a marine sanctuary. More than 113,000 people support us in this fight! We even went to the Prefecture of Oise to Beauvais so that the image of Femke are on display in front of the offices of the one person who has the power to remove her from the park. Our intervention in this public park at the end of a show this summer has made known her fate to a multitude of people and families who come to have fun. Children should not be made to believe that the place of extremely intelligent sentient beings lies in tiny pools and that their purpose is only to entertain us.

One Voice also requests that a new ministerial decree be issued to organize the end of dolphinariums. Femke is dying from within, it is a silent drama of an abyssal depth. Even though the park is closed, we will continue to defend her, we have pressing charges for her!

Please sign our joint petition with Réseau-Cetaceans and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and share the story of Femke! 

Julia Mothé
Hr blog

In the subject

The court prohibit Marineland from relocating the orcas before the end of the independent assessment Marineland: One Voice has obtained a temporary ban on moving the orcas - hearing on 16/01/2024

Comments 10

I accept that publication of my comments is subject to the code of conduct.

Mic JACQUES | Monday 05 November 2018

C'est tellement triste !!

trochu | Monday 05 November 2018

Oui, la fin des delphinariums doit être exigée car il n'y a pas plus honteux, scandaleux et inacceptable que d'exploiter et d'utiliser DES ANIMAUX ETRES VIVANTS à part entière comme nous à des fins distractives, d'amusement ou autres, les animaux ne sont en rien "nos esclaves et ni inférieurs", aucun être vivant n'est supérieur à qui que ce soit et il faut que nos dirigeants et responsables de toutes ces cruautés envers les animaux en prennent enfin conscience. Tous ces bassins de la honte doivent être fermés définitivement et les animaux libérés dans des sanctuaires de repos ou dans leurs environnements naturels si cela est possible. Je pense également qu'il devrait y avoir une éducation au respect total des animaux et dénoncer toutes formes de maltraitances ignobles, de cruauté et d'exploitations dans tous domaines dans toutes écoles françaises du primaire afin d'informer et sensibiliser au maximum les enfants, qui d'emblée aiment les animaux, ce qui ferait diminuer et disparaître très certainement toutes les horreurs et atrocités dont les animaux sont victimes par et pour des humains. MERCI ONE VOICE