Dolphinarium decree: not passed as ‘discretely’ as intended

Breaking news: An immense victory! The statute has just been published, we had demanded right up until the last minute that dolphin reproduction be banned, and this measure has been added! More than 16,000 people had protested on the Minister’s website against the original statute at our request. We were heard!

4,500 pages of comments opposed this draft statute, the result of the public consultation from February this year. Animal rights, as well as the environment, may be the gaping holes in the candidate’s programmes, but the French are no less committed.

The timing
As with any unpopular measure, the right moment had to be chosen to push through this statute. What better than a televised debate between the two candidates in the final round of the presidential election, keeping the whole of France busy. It was right at the beginning of that evening on the third of May, that it was announced by the Minister of the Environment that Madame Royal, several days before her departure, had signed the statute, an unexpected gift to the captivity industry. This is despite the expert’s opinions, despite the opinion of the French public, and despite the opinion of personalities such as Nicolas Hulot, who we must congratulate for his unambiguous tweet:
“Our civilisation should no longer tolerate dolphin captivity. It is time to finish with the #dolphinariums“

Notre civilisation ne devrait plus tolérer la captivité des dauphins. Il est temps d’en finir avec les #delphinariums pic.twitter.com/DTiYsQdjEt

— Nicolas Hulot (@N_Hulot) 20 avril 2017

Smoke and mirrors
We could believe that this statute signifies an improvement for captive cetaceans. But who can consider that increasing the depth of the pools by 1 metre will change the dolphin’s daily lives? That to be obliged to ask the opinion of a commission for their reproduction (but not be obliged to act upon it) will limit this reproduction? These “measures” are ridiculous. On the 27
^th of April, Marineland declared that its four orcas will be the last to be held in their pools, confirming that the ban on detaining orcas, like the other measures, had been taken with the backing of the captivity industry, curbing the pressure on the dolphinariums. It is pointless to demonstrate in front of their gates, the statute has been enacted and they now have 3 years to comply…

The only possible predicament is the definitive end to cetacean exploitation. The dolphins need only one thing: freedom. But the real change brought about by this statute is that it clearly authorises the creation of new dolphinariums, and by legitimising them, it assures the continuity of their activity. Even if the lack of popularity of these types of projects allows us to hope that this will not be the case, the fact remains that years of work will be again needed to discuss this text. We cannot let this industry continue. It is essential to support its evolution and to obtain the end of dolphin and orca exploitation.

We will have two months to launch an appeal to the State Council from the date of this statute’s publication. One Voice will not give up. You can support our action by signing and sharing our petition.