St. Maarten Private Eye

DEN HAAG/WILLEMSTAD – The Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) in the Netherlands has Parliament questions about the incident with one dolphin at the Dolphin Academy in Curacao, where some Dutch tourists got injured, while participating in a show with the dolphin. De Telegraaf even reported that these people barely escaped the death.

According to the newspaper article, the dolphins were exhausted and stressed due to the fact that they had to give extra shows during the holidays. Immediately after the show, management of the dolphinarium took the visitors aside and forced them to hand over films and photos taken during the show. They were furthermore threatened not to publish the incident and were offered money for their silence. “An anonymous visitor managed to keep a short film of the incident from the hands of the Dolphin Academy management”, is mentioned in a press article of the Party for the Animals that has 2 of the 150 seats in Parliament. The movie can be seen on the websites of YouTube, Dumpert.nl, and partijvoordedieren.nl. According to an expert on dolphins that saw the short recording, this animal has most probably caused this accident on purpose, due to being angry and stressed.

It often happens that when dolphins reach the age of being sexually active, they ‘go on strike’ and become unmanageable. This is the reason why swimming with dolphins is prohibited in several other countries. Amigoe reported last week that dolphin Annie that caused the collision is 11 years old.

The Party for the Animals has started an e-mail action to the Island Council and Lt. Governor of Curacao, in which e-mails they are requested to investigate the situation at the Dolphin Academy and possibly close it. The party for the animals has also sent some Parliament questions to the Dutch minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations and the minister of Agriculture, Nature, and Food quality. The Party opposes entertainment with dolphins, because keeping mammals in captivity is in breach of the wellbeing of the animals. Besides, it is very irresponsible to put tourists this way in contact with the animals. It is very risky. The fact that management has threatened the visitors and forced them to hand over their films and photos and so cover up the incidents, is unacceptable. More reason for investigating the practices of the Dolphin Academy and ask questions about the ‘contact therapies’ with dolphins, as is also offered in Dolphinarium Harderwijk. The effect of these so-called therapies has not been proven scientifically.

Also De Telegraaf reported the incident on Sunday, under the title ‘Dolphin jumps on tourists’. The website Dumpert.nl shows ‘the images that you were not allowed to see’ under the title ‘Dolphin assaults Curacao’. Dolphin Academy indicated this morning that they will have an official reaction on the publication in De Telegraaf about three Dutch tourists that escaped the death, when during a dolphin show in Curacao, a very tired and stressed 300-kilo dolphin jumped on them.

One woman had to be treated for ‘paralysis symptoms’. A Dutch couple was lightly injured.

The six tourists had to hold up a stick and the dolphins had to jump over it and one of the dolphins lost direction. “The trainers panicked when also the other dolphins were rattled.”

The other Dutch victims with their followers were taken aside immediately after the incident. “They had to hand over their films and photos, which were deleted right there. Security personnel of the dolphinarium also threatened them to keep the incident quiet and not to bring it into the open.”

Images of the incident can meanwhile be seen on the sire: www.dumpert.nl

article www.amigoe.com/