International campaign against valfängelse in Russia

To capture the live belugas and killer whales for resale to China is extremely profitable business in the Russian Far East. According to the independent Novaya Gazetas surveys pay chinese delfinarier today around a million dollars for a killer whale.

the Hunt has been going on for several years. The animals caught with the help of giant network, which is drawn between the two catamarans. The companies, who, in this way carves the gold, get the permission of the Russian authorities by calling the chase scientific.

Russian environmentalists have for several years been protesting against the activity, but it is only now that the issue has come up on the national level – after a hundred belugas and killer whales were found trapped in the ten-tight containers in the bay of Srednjaja outside of Nahodka. The area is located in the Primore district in the Far East, approximately opposite the Sapporo in Japan, on the other hand, Japanese lake.

if they caught the whales in the fall. Videos taken with drones shows how vitvalarna and späckhuggarna has been placed in containers so cramped that the animals can barely move. During the winter, the containers become covered with ice which must be broken up, causing additional stress for the animals.

When even the state tv-channels reported about the scandal reacted to the Russian authorities. Now all the four companies who have organized the hunt and still keep cetaceans captive drawn to justice. Companies called Afalina, Belyj Kit, Okeanarium DV and Sotjinskij Delfinarij.

According to the police, they have violated several rules, and on the other that the whales should be adult individuals, and that they should be held under humane conditions. Also the intelligence service the FSB is involved in förundersökningarna.

who has visited port said to Novaya Gazeta that späckhuggarnas skin is covered by a thick layer of pathogenic bacteria. Russian authorities promise that the whales should be released and president Vladimir Putin himself has given the authorities time to march 1 to find a solution to the problem. His spokesman Dmitry Peskov stresses that it is urgent.

"It has already taken too long and the animals are suffering," says Peskov. He also recalled that Putin, who profile themselves in the public eye as a great animal lover, often involved in the process for the endangered species.

at the same time, an international campaign for the whales to be set free. In the forefront of the campaign is the example of hollywood celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio and Pamela Anderson.

Since the scandal unfolded, has three belugas and a killer whale disappeared. The companies say they managed to escape. Environmentalists are convinced that they have been carried away secretly and sold.

authorities investigating the case continues, the so-called coaches on the location of the whales to accustom them to people. When journalists for the first time today, was released into the harbor, said the coaches openly that they are preparing the whales for a life as circus animals in the delfinarier. This is despite the fact that, according to the experts becomes more difficult for the whales to return to the freedom the more they are allowed to get accustomed to people.

the Impression is that the companies, at the same time that they are drawn to justice, trying to save their investment by asking the authorities with a fait accompli: the Whales are already accustomed to humans and are no longer in the wild.