No fine for Dolfinarium for the time being: the judge will reverse the decision of State Secretary

The Dolfinarium in Harderwijk does not have to pay a penalty for the time being. There is insufficient evidence that the Dolfinarium has violated the rules of the zoo permit. The court in The Hague ruled on Monday.

State Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature Jean Rummenie (BBB) ​​had imposed the Dolfinarium the penalty after a report of action group Bite Back. The animal rights organization had videos of shows in the animal park sharedwhich showed how the dolphins did different tricks.

According to Bite Back, it was about « tricks that no longer occurred, (but) were slowly re -introduced in the shows ». For example, the images show how dolphins push their trainers on their noses through the water, and how they jump over their trainers on command.

No educational message

According to the action group, the tricks are « for the entertainment of visitors, without further educational messages. » That is an important point, because where it is normally not allowed to show animals ‘unnatural behavior’, this is possible for certain educational purposes.

Rummenie went along with the wish of Bite Back. The State Secretary demanded that the dolphinarium that the dolphins in the shows would only show natural behavior, on pain of a penalty of a maximum of 10,000 euros. In addition, Rummenie relied on the video images of Bite Back, and the judgment of an expert about those images.

That is insufficient, the court writes. « The State Secretary should not only have looked at the excerpts, but also at the explanation that the Dolfinarium gives about this in his total educational program. » After all, the Dolfinarium itself claims that the tricks took place as part of education on ‘specific characteristics’.

Relieved

Now that the judge has suspended the penalty, the Dolfinarium does not have to make adjustments to its program as long as it still has an objection procedure at the Ministry.

The Dolfinarium writes in a statement to be « relieved » « that the truth is now coming to the table ». According to the Dolfinarium, the judge’s ruling « confirms » that the sea mammal park « works according to the agreements we have made with the ministry » – although the court says nothing about this in the verdict.

In its own response, Bite Back states that the statement « in no way means a victory for the Dolfinarium ». « The objection procedure is still running and when the RVO and State Secretary follow the agreements and law, one should simply decide in the interest of the animals and forbid these show elements. »

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