September 7, 2019

Director of VNIRO Kirill Kolonchin said that there is “an opportunity to distribute partially animals in Russian centers”, but there is no final decision on this issue. It is reported by Interfax.

The loud statements of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Dmitry Kobylkin, VNIRO, Rosprirodnadzor that ALL animals will be released before the winter, may remain just a statement. Now that all orcas have been released, it is a turn for the beluga whale. 75 individuals are still in the whale jail. It is necessary to free them before winter, before the formation of ice. Instead of starting to think about how to fulfill given promises, there are proposals to distribute beluga whales among dolphinariums. We are not surprised by such a turn – many Russian dolphinariums (and there are more than 30 in the country) need belugas. If desired, all 75 belugas can be distributed, and after a year or two dolphinariums can lease belugas, for example, to China. This scheme is well known to us.

The world and Russian public are closely monitoring the situation and demanding the release of all belugas without any exception! More than 1.5 million people signed a petition for release. To give belugas to the dolphinarium is not a reasonable decision. The public will not accept it. Such a decision will lead to another scandal at the international level. We understand that organizing the transportation of such a number of animals in a short time is not easy, but the option of giving belugas to dolphinariums should not even be considered. Transportation by trucks is not the only option! There are another options for transportation by sea or by plane.

Friends, we ask you to start writing letters to the president again, to Rosprirodnadzor, the Ministry of Natural Resources and VNIRO. In the letter, we ask you to be extremely polite, but express your position on the unacceptability of the transfer of belugas to dolphinariums. These animals were caught illegally – this is proved by the court. The transfer of animals to dolphinariums will be an open encouragement of future illegal captures. We will not let this happen. We fought so hard for more than a year for the release of ALL animals, not for transfer to dolphinariums. They have the right to be free!

Letter to President Putin http://en.kremlin.ru/contacts
Rosprirodnadzor http://rpn.gov.ru/appeal-to-rpn
Ministry of the environment http://www.mnr.gov.ru/open_ministry/reference/
VNIRO vniro@vniro.ru