France’s Parc Asterix announces dolphin park closure a day before MPs debate animal welfare bill

Dolphins in captivity in Hong Kong's Ocean Park

Credit: BOBBY YIP /Reuters

One of France’s most popular amusement parks is to shut its dolphinarium a day before parliament debates a bill that could will phase out marine parks and the use of wild animals in travelling circuses.

Parc Asterix, an amusement park outside Paris themed on the famed plucky comic book Gaul, said the decision was “based on a desire to focus on its historic amusement park activity”.

Created in 1989, the park is currently home to eight dolphins and five sea lions.

“We’ve been thinking about (closing the dolphinarium) for years,” Nicolas Kremer, head of the park, told Le Parisien.

“I’d even say that we made the decision three years ago.”

While a majority of French are against keeping marine mammals in captivity for shows, half of visitors to Parc Asterix have until now gone to watch its eight dolphins and five sea lions.

Mr Kremer said that all had found new homes in other parks “around Europe” that have been certified as respecting EU norms on animal welfare. 

It was the "best solution" as it was not possible to return them to to the wild given their age, the fact that most were born in captivity and the distance from their natural habitat, he said.

The transfer would be made "in the first quarter of 2021".

The announcement came a day before French MP’s debate a proposed bill on protecting the welfare of wild animals in captivity.

The text aims to phase out keeping and reproducing dolphins and killer whales in captivity, as well as their participation in shows. Parc Asterix is one of three sites with marine mammals. The other two are Planète Sauvage and Marineland.

The law also aims to impose a gradual ban on using wild animals in travelling circuses and on raising mink on fur farms within five years.

When she first mooted the bill, Barbara Pompili, France’s minister of ecological transition, said it would ensure that bears, tigers, lions, elephants and other wild animals would no longer be allowed in travelling circuses "in the coming years.”

The ban does not apply to wild animals in other permanent shows and in zoos.

"It is time to open a new era in our relationship with these (wild) animals," she said.