Marineland has applied to the French Ministry of Ecology for a permit to export the orcas Wikie and Keijo, One Voice rises up and recalls the law

According to our information, to comply with this contract, the dolphinarium refuses to lose any more money by keeping these orcas, and has therefore decided to take action. We therefore immediately wrote to the Ministry of Ecology to inform the new arrivals in these key positions (the instability of the government over the last few years clearly hasn’t helped in this matter) that a court ruling (from the Grasse court) prevented any relocation of the orcas.

And even though Marineland has appealed this decision, what the judge of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal will say is not yet determined. We’ll have to wait until December 5 to find out. It’s a safe bet that he won’t appreciate Marineland initiating action.

Marineland’s insistence and repeated lies prove that it wants to get rid of the animals as quickly as possible.

Especially since this is not the dolphinarium’s first attempt. It was mentioned at the hearing on October 29, 2024 that the Antibes facility had considered violating the court ruling a year ago… And in a dark irony, at the same time as their lawyer was trying to convince the judge of her good faith, sea lions and seals from the Côte d’Azur basins were sent abroad, as well as in the days that followed, on November 6 and 8.

Since the law does not oblige parks to part with animals, this was a deliberate choice on Marineland’s part!

We also reminded the Ministry that the law passed in 2021 did not oblige dolphinariums to part with cetaceans if they were carrying out scientific programs on these animals, which was already the case in all of them. This is one of the things we’ve deplored from the outset. But it is also proof that Marineland and Parques Reunidos, which runs it, have no thought whatsoever for the well-being of Wikie and Keijo, but reason solely in economic terms.

As the health assessment for Wikie and Keijo has not yet been completed, how can they be moved?

In principle, the government has a free rein to refuse to send them to this Japanese amusement park/hotel, since the experts appointed by the court have not been able to assess the state of health of the Antibes cetaceans. And in any case, the court rulings obtained by our association prevent any departure to any destination whatsoever before the said assessment has been completed.

One Voice and its partners are extremely concerned for the animals. Under Japanese law, there is no protection for dolphins and orcas. At the park Marineland chose for Wikie and Keijo, day after day, Ran is losing her mind… and her health. And at Loro Parque (Tenerife, Spain), where the IGEDD report saw another fallback solution of the worst kind, the tanks are tiny and Keto has just died in them… Yet another victim of an industry which, while it exploits them, crushes individuals as if they were mere carcasses fit for the scrap heap.