Save our orcas! A sanctuary, not China!
Inouk, Wikie, Moana and Keijo, four orcas born into captivity at Marineland of Antibes couldbe transferred very soon to China. But once there, they would be exploited without mercyuntil their last breath because there is no law that protects animals. We will not give up thefight! We are asking the President of the Republic to act, we are calling for a mobilizationand gathering of our allies, experts and NGOs in the fight towards the closure ofDolphinariums. Save our orcas, they need to be transferred to a sanctuary and certainly notto China!
In the far east, the construction of ponds and breeding parks are multiplying visibly and in monumental proportions. The manufacturers at the head of these companies are ready for anything, not hesitating to provide “even at the source” to fill these pools, as in Russia…
The captive industry: ready for anything
But Western countries are in the midst of changes towards the captivity of wild animals. Thus, Vladimir Putin, after consulting with orca specialists accompanied by NGOs including One Voice, has courageously ordered the ban on the sale of orcas and belugas captured in Russian waters. All were released. A dead loss for the Russian billionaires at the head of this business: each living orca selling for a million dollars. And a lack of animals to exploit for this booming captive industry in China. The publicity campaigns and the disaffection of the public for these “shows” today has pushed Marineland to get rid of its orcas while still reaping the benefits.
The group Parque Reunidos which owns, among others, Marineland, is one of those structures that are developing in this part of the world. We have just learned that it should make a transfer of orcas from France next January.
Hell is a dolphinarium pool in China
What awaits them in China is constant reproduction, the separation of Wikie and her sons Moana and Keijo, who is only 6 years old. Remember that in the wild, orcas live together in family groups all their lives… To this we can add exposure to diseases consistent with the decline of the immune system due to living in captivity, insanity resulting in self-harming behaviour, and death from exhaustion. In China, many captive cetaceans disappear without a trace, in total impunity…
Save our orcas!
But Inouk, Wikie, Moana and Keijo are orcas born in France. Marineland are responsible for them, if only on a moral plane. These are “our” orcas! We ask the President of the Republic to intervene, as his Russian counterpart did. We wrote to him, as well as the orca specialist, Dr. Ingrid Visser.
A sanctuary, not China!
We saw Valentin die during the storm of 2015 and rallied together for Inouk. The park is not in compliance with current regulations. Year after year, we are present alongside the orcas. We also demand relentlessly that the Ministry of Ecology rewrite the 2017 decree in the same manner and urgently so exchanges between parks can be stopped and also reproduction in captivity! Meanwhile, for more than two years, breeding has been in full swing for dolphins in French dolphinariums and orcas may see their conditions of their hellish detention worsen. They need to be transferred to a marine sanctuary! Parque Reunidos, listed on the stock exchange, has ample means to invest in the establishment of a space where they can live far from the public gaze, in semi-freedom and together. Please sign the petition!
Shouka, Inouk’s beloved big sister, sent to the United States in 2002 and kept alone for more than ten years in an empty pool, is currently circling the pools of Seaworld in California. After years of isolation that led to her madness, she has had her misery slightly lifted thanks to an older captive orca like herself. Shouka would also be involved in the transfer to China. She will certainly be forced to reproduce in addition to being indecently enslaved to amuse the crowd like the others. So, it is the five “French” orcas that will disappear forever if we allow the captivity industry to continue to operate.