Dolfinarium ordered to stop animal tricks during live shows or risk a €10,000 max. fine

The Dolfinarium in Harderwijk have to change their shows with dolphins, walruses, and seals, or risk a fine of up to 10,000 euros. The marine mammal park has to have altered the shows by April 11 at the latest, The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has said. The animals are currently forced to exhibit unnatural behavior, the RVO has said, and they find this unacceptable.

During their investigation, the RVO pointed out several examples of unnatural behavior from the animals. The government service named 20 examples of offenses, like dolphins who have to jump over trainers, a walrus that "blobs" its fat on command, or seals who are waving at visitors using their flippers.

Animal rights organization Bite Back submitted an enforcement request to the RVO and made video footage of the offenses. “Several of the offenses are literally described as forbidden in the regulations,” a spokesperson for the organization said. The RVO also pointed this out in the document addressed to the Dolfinarium.

For every offense that occurs after the deadline of April 11, the Dolfinarium will have to pay a fine of 2,000 euros. This can rise up to 10,000 euros. The Dolfinarium disagrees with the decision, and is objecting to the penalty order.

“The RVO has now, based on footage supplied by a third party, given a different interpretation to certain aspects of our presentations,” Dolfinarium director Alex Tiebot said. “This footage shows fragments of our shows but misses the complete educational context that this takes place in.”

He believes that the park has implemented many changes in recent years and is adhering to past agreements. The director added that the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) said during an inspection in May that they saw no evidence of unnatural behavior.

However, the RVO pointed out that the video footage shows otherwise. “The fact that this is not the case during every performance or is not the case every day does not detract from this."