7 dolphins have died in 3 years.

A dolphin died yesterday because the park was hosting a techno party, and it's thought the noise scared the dolphin to death.

Admittedly, I was silly and once visited the park. I was horrified to see how they were treating the animals. Dolphins in a swimming pool. A tortured parrot who kept trying to fly away. And the woman who was training the parrots seemed angry and kept shouting at them. Never seen anything like it.

I don't like telling others what to do, but please, please don't support this 'establishment'.

http://www.connyland.ch/

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Waw so this is real...Few weeks ago a friend of mine went with her daughter there and then put some pics on Facebook. I told her I would love to visit the place one day soon. She didn't say anything bad about the place and I didn't see anything bad in those pics to get me alarmed. Then I told my bf I wanted to go and he said he doesn't want to go because the animals are treated very bad there and he doesn't want to fund (by buying tickets) this terrible business...treating animals so bad...I didn't believe him at first but then he told me more about it and I was quite sad. Poor animals. Why do people have to treat them like that??

Listen to your boyfriend - it all seems to be true unfortunately

I felt so bad for the parrot that kept trying to fly away We ended up leaving quite early. I've never seen animals being treated like that before. It was completely cruel.

I agree with you, why do people have to do things like this? It makes my blood boil

Animal cruelty is alive and well in Switzerland.

Thanks for the warning. This is the reason I don't visit zoos or go to the traditional circus; animals belong in the wild, not in an enclosure.

100% agree.

Circuses I agree with - hate to see animals being paraded about doing stupid tricks but haven't zoos moved on a bit from just cages for display?

Many zoos operate breeding programmes to protect species as well as research into endangered species to try to avoid extinction.

I know one of the zoos in the UK (Whipsnade maybe?) got involved in campaigning against poaching of rhinos in Africa, for example. There are a lot of qualified people working behind the scenes in zoos on many programmes besides "displaying animals in a cage".

Sometimes it's not all just black and white.

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“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan

Or a supermarket.

Unless it's a cow.

(Two jokes for the price of none!)

Yes they have, but that doesn't change my position though. I'm not knocking zoo workers, many have noble intentions and do good work, it's just that I don't like the concept of zoos.

Saving an animal species from extinction by keeping them in zoos defeats the purpose. To save a species save the habitat it lives in. Breeding programs are a good start though, but only if paired with habitat conservation / restoration.

Switzerland does have animal cruelty laws, I believe. If there is cruelty going on, then making a complaint to the appropriate authority would seem the correct thing to do.

I haven't been to Connyland for what must be two decades.
But it's not a zoo. It's probably more like a circus.

And circuses (with exotic animals) are really a remnant of the 19th century.

A circus with horses, ponies, clowns and artists is OK.
But there's no need to have elephants, bears and tigers in a circus-performance.
I'm not inside the mind of one of those, but I just presume they must suffer incredibly. Most of these animals are about as intelligent as a human - and one wouldn't keep a human in a cage or tied to a stake for 22h a day for no other reason as to entertain other humans on the rest of the day.

Well, 1st of all: the Dolphin died days after the party - it's highly unlikely it got "scared to death". In any case - they're doing an autopsy on the animal to find out what really happened.

Apart from that: I do agree that they shouldn't be allowed to keep Dolphins (or any other animals, for that matter). The park is very small - it's hard for me to imagine that animals will have a decent life in such a small area. I've been to the park when I was a child - and even back then their reputation wasn't the best.

Peter

We went few months back and had a great time, our little one loved it. One question i kept asking is: where do they keep the dolphins in winter time? I really was not sure as everything is in open space. Curious now to know more than then.

That's your point of view.

To me seeing another person being degraded is cheap and a horse or pony is as much an animal of free spirit as an elephant or bear and doesn't deserve any less treatment just because some humans fancy otherwise.

What is degraded for you?

Glad you agree that overall the park isn't the correct environment for the animals to live in.

I get passionate about things like this.....I absolutely can't stand any people or organisation that could be cruel to animals, especially animals that are depending on us to look after them.

Well we'll see what the results are for the autopsy....even if the party wasn't the exact reason for death, it couldn't have helped matters if the dolphin happened to die of any other cause....but the main speculation is that the party caused considerable damage to the dolphin's well-being.

The animals suffer in that place. Irresponsible owners I guess.

The article: http://www.20min.ch/news/ostschweiz/...Party-11524354

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Disgusting, but I suppose it is supply and demand - as long as people go to these places they will remain open for business. Another question is where will the replacement dolphins come from?

Have a look at http://www.savejapandolphins.org/ it really is an eye opener. There is also a petition and lots of information. If you haven't yet seen the documentary film "The Cove", I would recommend it although it is extremely distressing. It convinced me of the level of brutality involved in this industry.

I'm a little suprised in one way about the Swiss (or maybe just peoples) attitude about animals. The Swiss seem to be such animal lovers; hence why dogs seem to be accepted everywhere, like many resturants. And they take such pride in their cattle and beef etc.. But then there are places like Connyland (which I would never visit becuase personally I believe that dolphins are far to smart to be kept in captivity).

Its such a contridition in a way..if you love your dog/cat/fish...whatever; how would you feel if they were kept in a small cage and put on show and probably doing tricks for tourists. Personally, I can't seperate the two..I have and do LOVE all my animals with my whole heart, and couldn't imagine exploiting them or anyother animal.

I think people's ignorance of the park was enough of a boycott. I wasn't even aware of what was happening there, nor would i want to go there. (Plus I think they advertise heavily in germany for some reason) I would rather go to a water park with no animals

Well, things have turned out quite differently from what was initially suspected:

1. the dolphin died from a rare skin disease and not as a result of the techno party (apparently, there was absolutely zero noise from that party audible where the dolphins are kept)

2. From the 7 dolphins that died over the last couple of years, only one was sick and died prematurely. 5 were very old, one was a baby animal - even in nature, only one in 3 baby dolphins survives - and in nature, most dolphins don't make it to the age the 5 old animals were.

The reason why the number of deaths was so high over the last couple of years is that no young dolphins were imported into Switzerland in more than 20 years, so the age of the remaining population is very high.

http://www.20min.ch/news/ostschweiz/story/29243239

The federal veterinary office is saying that the animals are kept well and in accordance with international standards.

While I still think it's wrong to keep dolphins in captivity (here and elsewhere), at least Connyland isn't doing anything wrong - beyond keeping the animals in the first place.

Peter

To be honest is it a bit difficult to take somebody with an twilight avatar serious... but I could not agree more.

However, I'd go one step further when it comes to dolphins - it doesn't matter how well they treat them or how big the tank is. Not because of the dolphin they have, but because of the dolphins that had to die in the process of getting them a "right" one.

In case you haven't watched it, it even got the Oscar for best documentary...
http://www.thecovemovie.com/the_cove/synopsis.htm

Simply don't go to any parks with dolphins - there are no good ones.