Last week Loro Parque received another visit of Free Morgan Foundation activists, led by Dr. Ingrid Visser. This visit was not previously announced to Loro Parque (as on earlier occasions) and was not motivated by any particular concern about the health or welfare of Morgan. Most likely the visit was motivated by the upcoming workshop “Assessment of welfare of marine mammal species in zoological parks” that will be held at Nuremberg zoo in a few days. This workshop will be hosted by the Nuremberg Zoo, the European Association for Aquatic Mammals, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The main goal of this meeting is the scientific evaluation of the welfare indicators used in marine mammals, and will have the cooperation of the European Parliament Intergroup on “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development” and the participation of Loro Parque.
In the past we received visits by Ingrid Visser right before some of the Morgan court cases and verdicts. Thus, it does not seem strange to see a new effort by the Free Morgan Foundation or any similar organizations to criticise Loro Parque, despite the 5 verdicts and the final decision of the Dutch Supreme Court supporting the decision taken by the Dutch Government to not release Morgan. On the other hand, there is no need to use these “undercover” tactics, as Morgan’s photos and weights that prove her healthy growth are regularly updated on the Loro Parque website.
where she ignored the instructions of our staff, not to use cameras or make recordings, she sent an email expressing “concerns about transparency regarding Morgan”. Despite the fact that Loro Parque does not have the obligation to grant access or visibility to any organization, as the facilities are authorized and inspected yearly by the competent authorities (who have never been contacted by the Free Morgan Foundation or any other group to express their concerns about Morgan’s status), one more time Loro Parque proved its transparency by putting Morgan in the first presentation of the day, and allowing Dr. Ingrid Visser and other FMF staff to stay for over half an hour taking pictures of Morgan when the public left the stadium.
Despite the previous warning and acknowledgement of this availability, the presence of Morgan in the presentation passed totally unnoticed by Dr. Visser. Anyway, after the presentation, Dr. Javier Almunia (Director of Environmental Affairs and expert in Morgan’s case) and two of the veterinarians that take care of Morgan accompanied Dr. Visser and answered all her questions while she was taking pictures of Morgan. The veterinarians confirmed that Morgan does not have any pathology and, as a consequence, she is not currently under veterinary treatment. Dr. Visser asked about the medicines that Morgan and the other orcas are given regularly (antibiotics, diazepam, etc.), and the veterinary staff confirmed that Loro Parque does not use diazepam for its killer whales, nor for its dolphins, and that medicines are not used systematically, but only when a pathology is detected and the veterinarians dictate the prescription. Dr. Visser received the last veterinarian reports made by an independent international veterinarian with over 40 years of experience with Killer whales, proving again that there is no concern about Morgan’s health status. Dr. Visser asked about Morgan’s broken teeth, and the veterinarian staff confirmed that Morgan does not have broken teeth just abrasion in some of them.
This is the description of the last visit of the Free Morgan Foundation to Loro Parque which, yet one more time gave the correct information about Morgan, and proved itself not to be hiding anything, despite that there is no obligation to provide data to organizations that systematically create smear campaigns against Loro Parque. The intention of the Free Morgan Foundation is the same as the Born Free Foundation, PETA, etc, which is to obtain funds from donations. The problem is that they do not use the money for the animals, but instead for their own welfare, as all their projects for so-called animal conservation are useless, from our perspective based on our experience. The story of Keiko is one perfect example of donations employed in a useless way, and you can read the story here.
The welfare of our animals is publicly demonstrated every day to thousands of our visitors, our primary concern the well-being of every single animal under our care. That’s the reason why we reject the insidious attacks of these organizations.
In conclusion, Loro Parque asks all of these anti zoo organizations what they have really done for the conservation of species that are endangered and seriously threatened and need sincere commitment? Please, devote your efforts to fight the real environmental problems faced by our planet and stop trying to destroy the work we do for nature, and the effort we devote to save the world’s biodiversity.
