Empty the Tanks at Duisburg Zoo!

Founded six years ago by Rachel Carbary, this year’s Empty the Tanks event took place at 70 locations in 21 countries. The message of compassionate dolphin freedom advocates around the world was loud and clear: Stop the capture, captive breeding, confinement and commercial exploitation of dolphins.

One of the events Dolphin Project participated in was the Empty the Tanks protest in front of the Duisburg Zoo in Germany. Organized by Dolphin Defense Group of Germany, the protest brought attention to the plight of eight dolphins currently held captive in small, substandard tanks at the zoo.

Ric, Helene and Mai Li O’Barry at Empty the Tanks/Duisburg Zoo

Empty the Tanks at Duisburg Zoo

The litany of deceased dolphins at the Duisburg Zoo should have led to the closure of the dolphinarium a long time ago. According to online sources, more than 60 dolphins have perished at the Duisburg Zoo since the dolphinarium opened its doors to the public in 1965. Several of those were bottlenose dolphins that had been captured from the wild. Other wild-caught dolphin species that have taken their last breath inside a barren concrete tank at the Duisburg Zoo are Amazon River dolphins, Belugas, harbor porpoises, tucuxi dolphins and Commerson dolphins.

From the dolphins’ point of view, the Duisburg Zoo is literally a dolphin death camp, yet the theatrical and superficial dolphin show continues as if everything is just fine. Seven bottlenose dolphins and a single river dolphin remain alive at the zoo. The bottlenose dolphins are exploited in daily shows and have been trained in tricks designed to attract the huge paying audiences. Spectators laugh and applaud as the hungry dolphins go through their repertoire of abnormal behaviors in exchange for food rewards of dead fish. The dolphin stadium, which seats 1400 spectators, is located inside of a building. The audience cheers loudly as one of the dolphins, eager to please his trainer and obtain the desired food reward, pulls a child from the audience in a small rubber boat. And this degrading stunt, according to the Duisburg Zoo, constitutes valuable “conservation” and “education.”

Captive bottlenose dolphin at Duisburg Zoo. Credit: Helene O’Barry/Dolphin Project

Captive bottlenose dolphin at Duisburg Zoo. Credit: Helene O’Barry/Dolphin Project

What goes on at the dolphin stadium at the Duisburg Zoo is cheap entertainment and animal suffering camouflaged as conservation.

It is time to empty the tanks – and we need your help to do it!