the One Voice association will “file a complaint” for “mistreatment”

Invited Thursday on franceinfo, the president of One Voice announced “to file a complaint” after the death of an orca on Thursday at Marineland in Antibes.

The animal protection association One Voice will “file a complaint” after the death, Thursday March 28, of an orca at Marineland in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes). Inouk, a 25-year-old male, is a new orca to die at the wildlife park, following the sudden death of 12-year-old Moana in October. There are therefore only two orcas left in Antibes: Wikie (22 years old), sister of Inouk and mother of Moana, and Keijo (10 years old), son of Wikie. All were born at Marineland.

“We are going to file a complaint for mistreatment, because it is not normal for an orca only 25 years old to die in conditions that we have warned about”said Thursday on franceinfo Muriel Arnal, founding president of One Voice. “For five years we have been saying that Inouk, with scientific reports to back it up, is not in good health, that there are problems at Marineland.” If the courts have “heard” the association and “ordered an independent expertise”, “nothing has been done to change things, neither by Marineland nor by the Ministry of Ecology”, deplores the president of One Voice. She specifies that the Ministry of Ecology “is beginning to open up to a sanctuary solution, a closed 40-hectare stretch of sea that already exists. Today, our emergency appeal is more important than ever.”

A sanctuary in Canada

The orca sanctuary is located “in Canada, Atlantic side, in Nova Scotia”, specifies Muriel Arnal. “The parents of Inouk, who has just passed away, and Wikie, who is still alive, were captured in the North Atlantic. So this is a sea of ​​origin for these orcas. The indigenous peoples there -low are also waiting for them.” According to Muriel Arnal, “everything is ready”ur place. “All it would take is a green light from the ministry for construction to be completed this year.”

These orcas will need “a time of adaptation” to their new environment in this sanctuary, adds the president of One Voice. “A sea enclosure designed especially for her is under construction.” She assures that “the ocean, the currents, the tides, the fauna, instead of this sterile water between four concrete walls” at Marineland in Antibes, “For her, it would change everything“. According to Muriel Arnal, if Inouk “had he been transported there in time, he would not have gnawed the walls of the pool and damaged his teeth to the point that all the nerves were raw in this icy water with the risk of septicemia.”