Kolmården Zoo is criticized after another dolphin killing - Luna was killed due to poor water quality

Another dolphin – Luna – has had to be euthanized in Kolmården's zoo, the second in just over a month. And all I can think is: When will it end?

The management has promised for five years that they will liquidate that business. The dolphins are not doing well, and the water quality in the pool is terrible. The County Administrative Board has repeatedly criticized the animal husbandry there, and as recently as June reported one of the veterinarians for having exposed one of the dolphins to unnecessary suffering (NT 23/6).

Add to that the park's high tailings. The stated ambition has always been to be better than an ordinary simple zoo: Here we are not going to keep a depressed tiger in a cramped cage, no, we meet the animals in a habitat-like environment, and we learn about them. Yes, if anything the park exists for the animals' own sake, to preserve endangered species!

But in fact, Kolmården is just a Disneyland in straight shoes.

The fact that people were allowed to enter the wolves' enclosure for a long time, for payment, despite the fact that the predators repeatedly attacked (including the TV legend Arne Weise) - that it was allowed to continue until a caretaker was killed - is a clear illustration of this.

Last year, the park broke records, both in visitors and turnover.

And the dolphins' situation makes it all even more obvious: Last year the park broke records, both in visitors and turnover (SVT Öst 16/1). If "the highest priority is to ensure that the dolphins are well", as the website assures, then of course part of the profit should immediately be spent on building a new pool with better water. But it's clear, the dolphinarium is a money machine in itself, with 1,800 seats that cost SEK 60 each, and up to three shows a day. Less important then how the dolphins themselves feel.

The upwardly angled corners of their mouths give the impression that they are constantly smiling. But they have nowhere to escape the extremely loud music and flashing colors of the show. They swim around in their dirty water, while a booming announcer's voice makes his sentimental point about what amazing animals they are and how important it is that we take care of them, yes, every species on our earth: Do a series of pirouettes now, and you'll each get a fish!

That is such hypocrisy.

Over the years, Kolmården has increasingly assumed the guise of a public amusement park. There is Wildfire – Europe's fastest rollercoaster, in wood, for an authentic feeling of nature – and then Bamseland with carousels, a souvenir shop and churros with cinnamon.

How about expanding that children's playground even more? And to leave the poor dolphins alone, give them a real gilded retirement life with a big, nice pool and lots of fat herring. They have earned it.

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