Yesterday the Center for Protection of Animal Rights "Vita" submitted an application in a few departments of the capital of Komi: Syktyvkar Committee on Environmental Protection, Syktyvkar environmental prosecutor's office, prosecutor's offices of Syktyvkar and the Komi Republic, Federal Service on Customers' Rights Protection and Human Well-being Surveillance in Syktyvkar and Federal Service of Natural Resources of the Komi. The occasion is the activity of the travelling Moscow dolphinarium, which opened on the territory of a large shopping center "June" in the capital of the republic in the early summer.
According to representative of "Vita" in Syktyvkar Alevtina Paroeva, the center operates in several cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, and its staff connected with her in social networks.
“We prepared statements together. I couldn’t miss this and ignore the appeal,” Alevtina said. “Over the years, I am a vegan, captured all the horribleness of animal abuse, I would like to stop all this activity”.
According to animal rights defenders, dolphinarium makes show with seals, white whale, which is in the Red List of International Union for Conservation of Nature Resources with the status of "vulnerable", the Black Sea bottlenose dolphins are listed in the Red Book of Russia protected by International Red Book, The Red Book of the Black Sea UN, the Red Book of Ukraine, international conventions and agreements on the protection of endangered species.
"Federal Service on Customers' Rights Protection and Human Well-being Surveillance of Russia issue administrative licenses to keep the "red book" marine mammals in captivity only in scientific, cultural and educational purposes, but dolphinariums use these animals for the purpose of commercial demonstration, and that is strictly prohibited by the current environmental legislation," animal advocates wrote in several appeals to various agencies.
They ask supervisors to check how animals appeared in the dolphinarium, and, as a consequence, the legality of its business. Moreover, "Vita" has a lot of questions on observing veterinary standards, sanitary and epidemiological regime in the dolphinarium. They require supervisory authorities to inspect for contamination of the environment from its actions, documents confirming the right of possession and using of the real estate, as well as the conditions under which marine animals are contained and transported.
"Of all the animals in the entertainment industry, marine mammals suffer from captivity worst of all. In nature, dolphins move through echolocation — the reflection of sound signals from solid objects, so a closed space of pools literally drives them crazy, becoming a mess because of the senseless reflections.
The only habitat that meets the needs of a dolphin in the space is the open sea. The water used in dolphinariums directly affects the health of dolphins. Artificial sea salt is multi-component and very expensive. Believe me, they take the cheapest road salt. Besides, they don’t have time to "burn" all products of the metabolism of animals completely, which is why they have to add chlorine. Chlorine burns the intestinal microflora of dolphins, which leads to dysbacteriosis, it is anesthetized with antibiotics. Over time, dolphin’s liver collapses," the text is from the statement of animal advocates.
In the dolphinarium we were told that all of these fears are unfounded.
“It is said by people who are not knowledgeable about the lives of animals in the wild and in captivity,” employee of dolphinarium Natalia Bashkova commented on the attention to their activities. “Dolphins arrived, people are happy, and those who make such statements just don’t know how we protect our animals."
According to her, marine species are under constant supervision, feel good, always fed.
“In the wild, marine animals beach themselves in flocks due to contaminated water and predators. If there they would catch few fishes a day, here each of our pet eats 15 kilograms of fish per day. They have food of the highest quality, and they are under constant veterinary supervision and inspections. We observe the water every two hours, and it is filtered every second. As for transportation, each animal has a comfortable separate pool with water supplies, food, light and ventilation. Dolphins experience no stress or discomfort. They are transported in special wagons that move no faster than 40 kilometers per hour. Let the prosecution come. We are always glad to see prosecution,” Natalia Bashkova added.
It should be said that the travelling dolphinarium will leave Syktyvkar at the end of August and move to Arkhangelsk, so that the supervisory authorities have less than a month to check on the appeals of "Vita".
Animal rights defenders themselves don’t exclude the option that checks won’t take place for lack of time.
“But we still hope that our supervisors will work quickly,” Alevtina Paroeva said to «7x7».
Yaroslava Parkhacheva, «7x7»