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Solidarity for The Wounded Walrus Sarah in Turkish Captivity

The destiny of a female walrus caused quite a stir in a dolphinarium in Istanbul at the moment. The German dolphin and whale protection organisation ProWal examined this facility at the middle of February and found out with horror that beside dolphins and a Beluga whale there was also a walrus which have to share in the show program although it shows the heaviest skin injuries.

Andreas Morlok, the manager of ProWal, himself was on the ground:- I have already seen a lot of animal suffering, but what happens there currently is pure animal cruelty." Sarah, a walrus which was caught in South America, has severe injuries. The skin is sore and peel off at some places. There are big cicatrice testify from fights with other animals which are in captivity. Therefore, the teeth of the walrus were pulled in spite of the ban by the Turkish Animal Protection Law. A veterinarian confirmed us that Sarah must have immense pains. The water which contains chlorine, the constant alighting from the pool, the absurd show presentations, the fights and the inadequately veterinary care and treatment have left a profound impact on the animal. Sarah suffers agonies from these artificial environment which is exposed to deafening disco music during the shows. We were able to document how a child, when taking photos with the animals, had even kicked the walrus and the staff of the dolphinarium didn't react. In the strongest terms we condemn this disrespectful and not species-appropriate use of captive animals aiming to purely commercial objectives.

ProWal already filed a criminal charge against the operator of the dolphinarium, a Turkish-Russian syndicate. According to the animal protection organisation the authorities sometimes did not become active. Turkish animal welfare compaigners of the "platform for the freedom of dolphins" visited also the dolphinarium a few days ago and furthermore found out that the walrus shared in the show programm. They don't give any time for rehabilitation to the animal. The animal welfare compagners demand that Sarah have to brought out of the facility and get veterinary care urgently.

Meanwhile the Turkey media have become aware to the destiny of Sarah and report about the conditions of the dolphinarium and the criminal charge from the animal welfare compagners from ProWal. The people show solidarity in the facebook "group-Please help Sarah." They protest against the authorities in Istanbul and demand to act finally and to help the animal.

Animal rights activists from Germany who support ProWal and the German whale and dolphin protection forum (WDSF) want to travel to Turkey for a great campaign for closing all ten dolphinariums at the beginning of April. They plan to make demonstrations and will ask the mayors of the dolphinaria-towns to close the dolphinariums.

Jargen Ortmaller, WDSF manager, is confident and combative:„ We will surely mobilise hundreds of demonstrators on our Turkey campaign with the help of animal protection organizations from Turkey, such as the HAYTAP. Several captive dolphins in the small concrete tanks come from the bloody dolphin drive in Japan. Four bottlenose dolphins from this population died in the Alanya Dolphinarium within a few days in the spring of the last year. The animals literally are burnt with more than 40 degrees of solar temperature. After our interventions all German tour operators have stopped their dolphinaria tours in Turkey (TUI, Thomas Cook, alltours, Jahn travelling, ITS, Schauinslandreisen, tourism FTI and Ã-ger Tours). We are now hoping of the mayors of the dolphin cities to close the dolphiniariums. If not, we will ask the German tour operators, not to offer the dolphin towns as a holiday destination like Antalya, Belek, Alanya, Kemer, Marmaris, Bodrum and Istanbul."

The animal rights activists fear that they have to encounter more sad fates such as the one of Sarah during their protests at the Turkish Riviera.