Overview
- Sarah Connor posted an Instagram story denouncing the keeping of dolphins in captivity and urged followers to join a major Berlin demonstration organized by Robert Marc Lehmann.
- Organizers have promoted the rally as a large anti-zoo protest and reporters say they expect several thousand attendees in Berlin’s Pariser Platz.
- Tiergarten Nürnberg has publicly defended its dolphin program, saying its seven bottlenose dolphins are adaptable, serve as ambassadors for wild populations, and support research and conservation.
- The zoo points to preliminary stress-hormone measurements that it says show relaxed levels and to ongoing behavioral and physiological studies as evidence of good welfare.
- Critics dispute whether dolphins can be housed in species-appropriate conditions and have focused new attention on the dolphin lagoon’s April reopening and reported cost rise from about €2 million to roughly €5.9 million.