Friends,

members of our coalition sent a number of letters to the state supervisory authorities about the illegality of capture and keeping of walruses in Srednaya Bay. We also got the support of the Marine Mammal Council, whose experts agreed to make recommendations on the proper preparation and release of walruses in the habitat.

However, we need your help – more letters are needed to send to the Russian president to make a political decision on removing walruses from the illegal possession of captors and releasing them into nature. We have prepared a letter template and ask you to send it to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin via his official website
http://en.letters.kremlin.ru/

Template of the letter https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zcqy1hX3CQcfMBLNH-xvEU3LQPaDre5FmhBo85zea48/edit?usp=sharing

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

Thank you for your decisions and actions to free 10 illegally captured orcas and 87 belugas from the Whale Jail in Primorye Srednyaya Bay! All cetaceans are free, and I want to believe that there will never be such prisons for dolphins and whales in Russia.

However, on the territory of the same “Whale Jail” in a rusty metal hangar, walrus calves continue to suffer for more than a year! The Sochi Dolphinarium and Oceanarium DV companies captured them in 2018 as part of the notorious fishing for cultural and educational purposes. Six walruses aged 7-9 months were taken from their mothers in the rookery in the village Enurmino in Chukotka. Then they were transferred to Srednyaya Bay, and placed in a closed hangar, where even sunlight does not enter.

Walruses feed on mother’s milk until they are 2–2.5 years old; therefore, releasing cubs younger than this age is dangerous — they cannot survive because they cannot get their own food. But scientists believe that after 2 years, when walruses switch to “adult” food, they can survive if conduct a special rehabilitation program and release them directly at the rookery – then they can join a group of wild walruses. The forecasts of specialists are positive, since walrus eating behavior is instinctive, and not acquired, and even in captivity they demonstrate these natural abilities.

The walruses were obtained illegally, since the sole purpose of their extraction was to sell to foreign aquariums, which was indicated in the permits and which is prohibited by Russian law. Keeping these animals in such terrible conditions – without light, in tiny pools, without the usual food and family, is cruelty to animals.

I ASK YOU to instruct the relevant law enforcement and supervisory authorities to investigate the legality of walrus captures  and take all necessary measures to seize them and, after appropriate rehabilitation, release them to their natural habitat – to the walrus rookery in Chukotka.

I ALSO ASK YOU to legally ban the capture of marine mammals for cultural and educational purposes, but in reality – for the brutal entertainment industry!

I ask you to send an answer to this appeal to the email address:__________

Best Regards,

Full name