Rights activists on Friday urged French authorities to transfer two orcas from Antibes\u2019 shuttered Marineland to a sanctuary after Spain refused to take them in. France has yet to find a home for the orca mother and her calf after the marine park where they are housed closed down in January over a law banning shows featuring marine mammals.<\/p>\n
Animal rights groups on Friday welcomed Spain<\/a>‘s refusal to take in an orca mother and her calf from a shuttered French marine park, saying France<\/a> must finally use the opportunity to transfer the animals<\/a> to a sanctuary.<\/p>\n France has been struggling to find a home for the orcas after a marine park on the French Riviera, Marineland, closed down over a law banning shows featuring marine mammals from December 2026.<\/p>\n Under pressure from activists<\/a>, Spain refused at the last minute to take in Wikie, 24, her 11-year-old calf Keijo and several other animals earlier this week.<\/p>\n Marineland has been ordered to care for them pending a future solution.<\/p>\n NGO Sea Shepherd France called the announcement “a huge relief”.<\/p>\n “Sea Shepherd France remains more mobilised than ever to help ensure a life worth living for the 14 cetaceans held captive in the park,” the conservation group said in a statement.<\/p>\n The group said an orca tank in the park in Antibes must be refurbished and staff dedicated to their care retained while activists and authorities are working on a solution.<\/p>\n Read more on FRANCE 24 English<\/a><\/p>\n Read also:
French marine park closes over law banning orca shows<\/a>
What next for Wikie and Keijo? NGOs call for Marineland\u2019s orcas to be sent to a sanctuary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rights activists on Friday urged French authorities to transfer two orcas from Antibes\u2019 shuttered Marineland to a sanctuary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,36,7649,7651,7650,7653,7652,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-11177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-marine-mammals","12":"tag-marine-park","13":"tag-marineland","14":"tag-orcas","15":"tag-sanctuary","16":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114320293551493241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}