Aïcko: dignity for an animal

One
Voice takes up the torch to do justice for this young dolphin who
left us far too early … After a botched autopsy, an expert opinion
with confusing conclusions, many questions remain unanswered today.
So, we return to ask them before other jurisdictions.

Choking in regulations

It
is a sad pun to describe the treatment of this case because,
remember, Aïcko was force-fed, with whole fish, when his state of
weakness required liquidated food for intubation. He was vomiting
from his air hole, but he was put back in the water and, feeling
himself sinking, he threw himself violently against a wall. An ugly
death from suffocation, broken larynx, at the end of a life full of
suffering and stress. So? There is no sanction related to this huge
error, nor to the causes of this drama: a prolonged anaemia, about
which we had raised the alarm. We also reported on the repeated violence that this puny dolphin had suffered, as he was preyed upon
by the other dolphins in the pool and to also be included in the
“shows” is none other than sick !

The law of silence ?

The
time has passed since we had reinforced our convictions: the rules
for keeping captive wildlife have not been respected in this set of
circumstances. And if at the time of this case we had obtained an
expert report to shed light on this death (brutal, and yet
predictable), this long fight had only added grey areas to the case.
The veterinarians and specialist biologists who have accompanied us
in the defence of captive cetaceans have all been disgusted by the
park’s postures. The conclusions (and deficiencies) made by an
“expert” who was able to suggest that captivity avoids the
stresses related to the quest for food in the wild: a very personal
vision of an animal being.

For
a protection association like ours, it is terrible to see the
suffering of “a little love” (the Japanese name for Aïcko) and
its similar detainees that are not recognized. But this pain becomes
prejudice when the captive animal dies in opaque circumstances and
the horror persists, unchanged, in the closed doors of the pools and
the unworthiness of these unnatural shows. We will not stop
submitting these problems to both judges and politicians. For them,
thank you for supporting our fight and the actions and petitions underway.

While
Elisabeth Borne, the Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition,
announces an upcoming action plan on captive wildlife, remember that
the suffering of animals in these pools is not a show that should be
offered to children, but a scourge to fight against and stop. Orcas
and dolphins lead a miserable life in these dolphinariums. It is time
to release them into marine sanctuaries. Please join with us at Place
Royale in Nantes on September 17^th
at 12pm.