#connyland

Switzerland has banned the importation of new dolphins into their country in hopes of eventually phasing out captivity in their country. Connyland, the last dolphinarium in the country, now is trying to use a loophole of importing dolphin semen for captive breeding to keep their dolphin shows going.

The dolphinarium Connyland in Switzerland, represented by Erich Brandenberger, sued the German Whale and Protection Forum (WDSF) with CEO Jürgen Ortmüller, in the trial on October 17th at 8:30 in Kreuzlingen/Switzerland court.

The animal rights organization should be forbidden to accuse the Connyland owner as "animal torturer" because it would be an "inappropriate violation of personality rights," they say.

In Connyland, eight dolphins died within the last three years, all together, over 30 of them since the beginning.

Connyland accuses Juergen Ortmueller, founder of the WDSF who is working in an honorary capacity, of publicizing inappropriate statements in a comment of the magazine "Blick."

Ortmueller stated on July 2011: "We as animal rights group are surprised that there are many voices against us because we are interfering, as Germans, in Connyland affairs. This case is not about us but about the dolphins' health worldwide which includes the Swiss dolphinarium, the only dolphinarium that seems like a circus to us. After six deaths the past three years, we feel obliged to stop this torture in the future." In the meantime, two more dolphins died in Connyland.

Another organization (ProWal) published their own video on YouTube showing how trainers are riding with shoes on the dolphin's mouth in front of a noisy crowd and speaking of torturing, too.

Connylands states that only by naming them as animal torturers in the video or article comment by WDSF, they implicate something that would not true. WDSF and ProWal claim in their comment on the trial that their statements count as freedom of expression.

President of court, Urs Haubensak, writes, referring to the trial: "It needs to be decided whether the average reader would count the behavior of Connyland as criminal or if the reader counts the statement as a general criticism."

The Swiss government has forbidden now any importation of dolphins into Switzerland. This will be the end of the dolphinarium in Connyland. They will close in 2013, as they published.

Two dolphins are dead after the Connyland themepark in Switzerland allowed a two-day rave to take place just a few yards from their tank.

The pair died agonizing, drawn-out deaths, seizing and foaming at the mouth. Veterinarians now say their deaths were likely caused by the ear-splitting music of the rave and drugs that ravers threw into the dolphins' tank.

Carin Zellerman is an animal activist living in Sweden. After hearing about the tragedy -- and the fact thatConnyland ignored protests by local activists who warned a rave would endanger the dolphins -- she decided to start a petition on Change.org to save the remaining dolphins from Connyland's negligence.Please sign Carin's petition calling on Swiss officials to shut down the Connyland dolphinarium where two dolphins died after a rave last month.

Eight dolphins have died at Connyland in the past three years, and a 2010 investigation into alleged violations of Swiss animal welfare laws at Connyland is still pending. Meanwhile, the health of the remaining dolphins at Connyland is slowly deterioriating  (due to illness and chemical poisoning as well as claustrophobia that results in depressive behavior and sometimes self-abuse).

The good news is that a  global outcry over this disaster is fueling the longstanding domestic movement to get Connyland's dolphin tank -- the last dolphinarium in Switzerland -- shut down. Swiss officials can't ignore this gross violation of animal welfare; they need to know that the world is watching, and that thousands expect them to save Connyland's remaining dolphins.

Please sign Carin's petition to shut down Switzerland's last remaining dolphinarium, where two dolphins were killed last month, and eight have died in the last three years: