The Franz Weber Foundation has put forward an initiative this Tuesday in the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa so that both island territories can be declared "free of animal shows" incorporating into the text the end of exhibitions with cetaceans that still occur in a well-known park on the island.

The proposal is based on the contradiction posed by the State Animal Protection Law approved in 2023, which prohibited the exploitation of wild animals in circuses but left the door open for the maintenance of other shows with marine species, including dolphins or sea lions.

While Europe moves towards the end of these performances, with several state prohibitions or restrictions on the construction of new infrastructure, public shows persist in Lanzarote "without real interest in the conservation of ecosystems and their inhabitants." 

Scientific studies demonstrate how captivity affects the organic health of cetaceans. They confirm that it negatively impacts the brain function of these animals, with characteristics such as the large size of their bodies and brains, highly social behavior, sophisticated cognition, high life expectancy, and very wide territorial ranges.

Enslavement implies small facilities, lack or reduction of exercise, and limitation of social interactions with individuals of the same species, preventing the development of normal behaviors of socialization, care, food search, or the covering of large distances.

"Thus, these animals are reduced to mere objects of entertainment and the dynamics carried out daily do not contribute any value to their conservation, let alone to the pedagogy with the attending public," defends the Franz Weber Foundation. FFW's proposal asks the Cabildo to take a stand against these "unacceptable dynamics", aimed at foreign tourists and ignored by most of the island's residents.

"Spain holds the sad leadership of open dolphinariums in the entire European Union, contributing to a model of captivity for simple business," they point out.

According to estimates made in recent years, these water containers would hold about a hundred dolphins and half a dozen orcas, forced to perform jumps and tricks that have nothing to do with their natural behavior.