- Iris is too "old".
She will be sent to Harderwijck, "in order to enjoy a quiet
retirement"
- Ivo is young and strong.
He will be sent to other zoos as a "stallion" for an
European breeding program.
* This statement doesn't mention F.Daman promised us last Friday
he would listen to rehabilitation's suggestions and try to find a
solution in order to send Iris and Ivo back to the Mexican Gulf.
* This statement doesn't mention that
Harderwijck is overcrowded and suspected to conduct weird
activities alongside with NATO or Seaworld, in USA.
Anyway, roughly separated from her son and thrown in such an
alien environment, Iris won't live long there.
* This statement doesn't mention Iris is not
too old but simply exhausted by 17 years of captivity in
artificial sea water, without seeing the real sun.
She was mistreated and must be cured.
In Bruges, Puck gave birth to calve at the age of 34 ! But in
Bruges, the pool is 6 meters deep. In Antwerp, only 3...
In short, we dare say Mr. Daman refuses to listen to us. ALL Belgian and French organizations are gathering now in order to fight against the Zoo's decision. A press conference will be held soon.
Iris and Ivo are only two forgotten dolphins in the core of Europe, among hundred other captive ones, when in the same time, thousands and thousands of them are dying in fisher nets.
But Iris and Ivo are also the genuine symbol of
dolphin captivity abomination. Now, their life is broken, their
future is hopeless. There are yet thinking and suffering.
Please help us to help them !!
Our conversation was hard and long but we had the feeling Mr. Daman seemed to be open- minded, and really tried to understand our anti-captivity point of view.
He confirmed that the Zoo
will renounce to open any future dolphin facility.
He recognized a succeeded rehabilitation of Iris and Ivo could
give the Zoo a excellent public reputation, in accordance with
other Zoos interesting initiatives, actions such as native
reintroduction and protection in their own natural sites of
African Bonobos chimps or Brazilian lion-faced golden apes.
Unhappily, Mr. Daman kept
saying Iris was too old and that she could die from a journey
stress.
His explanations concerning the future of his two dolphins were
more or less unsatisfying.
Apparently, Zoo still waits for Iris death before making any
choice.
BUT - and that's the positive point of this meeting - he agreed to get in touch with Ric O'Barry or with Marine Mammal Conservancy and to send to this rehabilitation Center the veterinarian file of Iris, this so-called "old" she-dolphin.
He accepted also to receive later a skilled rehabilitation expert, in order to estimate if an Iris and Ivo's journey to Florida is technically possible or not.
Money question was also
tackled.
OF course the Zoo's get no money at all for this operation but we
assured Daman we could rapidly touch and convince some Belgian
sponsors, at the time of Keiko's return to the wild.
We know we've got no
official written engagement, just verbal promises, and that
rehabilitation is surely not the ONLY solution Antwerp's Zoo
thinks about...
M. Daman asked us to stop the already planned 5 September street demo and so we did.
We asked him to come to the
November 14 Anti-Captivity Conference organized in Brussels by
Planete Vie and Delphus, where all the Belgian Press will be
present, television, radio, well known journalists.
Minister Pinxten and Prince Laurent are also invited.
On this occasion, we will
know if Mr Daman did really something for Iris and Ivo.
Thanks for your support !