Cruel treatment of a beached dolphin in Crimea has led to the rare animal’s death, sparking a police investigation.
A YouTube video released
on July 25 captures the shocking incident. In it, workers of a hotel in western
Crimea use a tractor to move a dolphin off the beach. The animal, which had
washed ashore earlier that day, is tied to the back of the tractor, with a trash
bag wrapped around its head. As the tractor drives off, its wheels rub against
the dolphin’s head and tail.
About a dozen people near
the tractor can be seen and heard in the video demanding that the dolphin is
released. “Bastards, you bastards!” shouts the camera operator to the tractor
driver and his companion as they take the flailing dolphin away.
According to Tetiana Zakabluk, assistant administrator
of the Marianida Hotel near Sudak, the dolphin was already dead when two
janitors hauled it away from the beach to bury it.
“He may be moving (in the video), but it’s nothing
but agony (and nervous reaction),” she told the Kyiv Post by phone.
Zakabluk says the
dolphin washed ashore three times on July 24, and people on the beach near the
hotel had done everything possible to help it.
When the dolphin was
washed ashore for the third time, the janitors decided to take it away and bury
it, so that the dead dolphin wouldn’t disturb beachgoers. For doing that
without consulting the hotel’s administration, and in front of a distressed
crowd of onlookers, the two janitors were fired, according to Zakabluk.
YouTube commenter Alexander Tygach, who claimed to
have witnessed the episode, described the situation in detail. According to
him, people on the beach tried to help the animal, but were unsuccessful.
“We tried to stop the
tractor, block its way, but nothing helped. The dolphin was alive when they
loaded it on the tractor, but when the tractor started moving it broke its
nose. I’m writing this now with tears in my eyes,” his comment reads.
According to the
Emergencies Ministry of Crimea, at least one person called the department
looking for help. It passed the information on to the Black Sea Ecology
Inspection, but no one arrived at the shore to assist.
When the information reached Nemo Dolphinarium in
Sudak, they did react, but it was too late. The team of two coaches, a veterinarian
and the dolphinarium’s director rushed to Marianida, about 20 kilometers from
Sudak. Since it is prohibited to capture Black Sea dolphins and hold them in
captivity, even for treatment, the staff of the dolphinarium planned to rent a
boat to bring the dolphin back to the sea.
“But we were late. When we made it to the spot, the
tractor had already left and people showed us the direction where it went. When
we caught up to the tractor, the dolphin was already dead,” says Nemo’s
director Yuriy, who did not want to give his last name unless his comments were
authorized by the head office of Nemo chain.
“They knew we were coming to help the poor baby,”
says Daria Udovichenko, a coach from Nemo. “When we saw the (dead) dolphin, its
head and tail were cut by wheels, and the tractor’s screws went into the right
side of its head.”
Zakabluk believes the
dolphin suffered from an unknown disease that caused him to be washed ashore
several times. She says she knows of an infection that has recently attacked
many of the Black Sea dolphins.
However, Yuriy says he
has never heard of any “dolphin infection.” According to him, the reason why
the dolphin was not able to make it back out to sea was because it had not been
moved deep enough into the water.
“Once washed ashore, the
dolphin must be moved five kilometers away from the coast and released there.
It’s useless just to move it into the water near the shore,” says Yuriy. “This
one must have been disoriented by the recent storm.”
The dolphinarium staff reported the animal abuse to
the police and prosecutor’s office. The Crimean Prosecutor’s Office has since
opened an investigation into the incident. The maximum punishment for the
cruelty to animals in Ukraine is two years in jail or a fee of Hr 3,400.
The population of common bottlenose dolphins in the
Black Sea is 5,000 to 10,000. In the Red Book of Ukraine, which lists
endangered species, the dolphins are marked as “rare.”
Kyiv Post
lifestyle editor Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
