As part of our ongoing work to raise awareness and stop new facilities being established to display captive dolphins and whales, Marine Connection routinely joins forces with other groups/individuals working on the ground in other countries. We are currently supporting the campaign by colleagues at The Last Cage to stop a dolphinarium being built within a marine park in Burgas, a city on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.
Captivity causes immense physical and psychological suffering to cetaceans. At the only other dolphin facility in Bulgaria (Festa, Varna) there have been many dolphin deaths over the years including a young dolphin that died last year during a performance – we do not want this suffering to be replicated in a second facility.
If approved, the dolphins will be held in outdoor tanks and have no protection from the elements contrary to existing laws for the protection of animals which include the EU Zoo Directive 1999/22 and several articles of the Bulgarian Animal Protection Law. Marine Connection has contacted the authorities asking for the dolphinarium aspect of this proposal to be refused and removed from the plans.
ACTION ALERT
We use our campaigning to give a voice to the voiceless, so please add your support by emailing your comments to:
Emil Dimitrov
Minister of Environment and Water
edno_gishe@moew.government.bg
Tonka Atanasova
Chief of Regional Inspection of Environment & Water
riosvbs@unacs.bg
Dimitar Nikolov
Mayor of Burgas
obshtina@burgas.bg
