After the hearing of the Dutch Council of State which has just taken place in The Hague, Loro Parque is confident that the Dutch judiciary will resolve this appeal by once again agreeing with the Dutch Government in the case of the orca Morgan, as has already happened on all previous occasions (this will be the tenth resolution on the same theme in the Dutch administration and justice system).
The pronouncement of other institutions, such as the European Parliament, has also always supported the action of the Dutch and Spanish authorities in the case of the rescue of this orca which, had it not been for Loro Parque, would have had to be euthanised. In short, the Free Morgan Foundation has never had a judicial resolution in its favour in the last nine years, despite which it continues with a strategy of trying to force court cases that only seems to seek public visibility.
The position of the Free Morgan Foundation is completely absurd, maintaining an unfounded litigation more than 9 years after Morgan appeared practically dead off the Dutch coast. Since then, it has been proven that Morgan is deaf, which makes it completely impossible for her to return to the wild and, in addition, she has been perfectly integrated into the orca group of Loro Parque, to the point of having been the mother of a calf, Ula.
With this lawsuit, the Free Morgan Foundation wanted the Dutch authorities to annul Morgan’s CITES permit, arguing that Loro Parque does not carry out scientific research, something totally ridiculous in light of the scientific articles published in recent years on bioacoustics, personality in orcas and immuno-toxicology or audiometry based on studies carried out with Loro Parque’s orcas. In addition to these publications, many other researches have been carried out and published as communications for scientific congresses and end-of-degree theses.
The only thing certain in this case is that Morgan was fortunate enough to be rescued and escape certain death. Hundreds of thousands of cetaceans each year are unlucky and end up dying trapped in fishing nets, with their stomachs full of plastic waste or their blood contaminated by toxic substances. Fortunately, Morgan has been able to survive and is now happy in Loro Parque with her daughter Ula.