Overview
- ZooParc de Beauval's director Rodolphe Delord announced the project halt after the estimated cost rose to about €45 million, multiple legal challenges were filed, and the state declined a financing guarantee.
- The proposed 2.5-hectare center was designed to host roughly 25 dolphins in about ten pools, serve research and conservation roles, and control captive reproduction.
- A coalition of roughly ten NGOs, including C’est Assez! and One Voice, lodged repeated court challenges arguing transfers and captive breeding clash with France’s 2021 animal welfare law.
- Eight of Marineland d’Antibes’s twelve dolphins were already moved to a park in Benalmádena, Spain, and Beauval warned that without a European solution the remaining dolphins could be sent to commercial facilities in Asia.
- Beauval’s withdrawal leaves urgent policy and welfare questions for government and animal groups, including who will fund and host the animals and how French law and litigation will shape future transfers.