The director of the dolphinarium in Sevastopol, who released four bottlenose dolphins into the open sea under the pretext of lack of funds to feed them, will pay a fine of 250 thousand rubles. The fate of mammals raised in captivity and unable to obtain their own food remains unknown, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
In early November, a video went viral on social media showing people on canvas stretchers carrying dolphins to a fence and throwing them into the sea. As it turned out, four bottlenose dolphins were beyond the means of the owner of the private dolphinarium “Flipper” Vladimir Kalnibolotsky (after the start of the Northern Military District there were no planes flying to Crimea, no tourists, etc.), and he found nothing better than to organize a demonstration of the release of dolphins after labor holiday season. The former wards of the dolphinarium, frozen vertically in the water, were seen from the shore for some time, but when environmental service inspectors and trainers from other dolphinariums went looking for them, they could not find the bottlenose dolphins.
Нseveral corpses of beached dolphins were mistaken for Zoya, Maya, Styopa and Tosha. But none of them were found to have the chips that are implanted under the skin of animals in dolphinariums and zoos.
The Sevastopol Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor's Office qualified the actions of the owner of the dolphinarium as an administrative offense under Art. 8.35 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation – “destruction of rare and endangered species of animals”, Part 3 and Part 4 of Art. 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation - “carrying out business activities in violation and gross violation of the requirements and conditions provided for by a special permit.” The Arbitration Court of Sevastopol ruled on a fine of 250 thousand rubles.
“In addition, the prosecutor’s office of the Gagarinsky district of Sevastopol carries out procedural supervision over the progress of the investigation of the criminal case regarding the release of bottlenose dolphins into the sea on the grounds of a crime under Art. 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “cruelty to animals”, which is being investigated by the investigative department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Gagarinsky district of Sevastopol. The location of the animals has not yet been established,” the Sevastopol prosecutor’s office said.