Despite growing pressure from almost half a million people around the world who signed a petition calling for the rescue of four dolphins held in a small chlorinated resort pool in Bali, the Indonesian government has refused to take action.
Although the Environment and Forestry Ministry found out that one of the dolphins was half blind and all of them were toothless, it said that all of the dolphins were found to be healthy, in contrast to a video secretly captured by an Australian animal rights group last month.
In the video, the dolphins, supplied by a company from Central Java, Wersut Seguni Indonesia (WSI), could be seen swimming toward the camera in the murky pool of Wake Bali Resto and Dolphin.
“Their skin was dull. Their eyes were cloudy. The water that they were in was not clear. I had noticed that they had had their teeth removed. I’m unsure as to why but I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” Natascha Elisa, who took the video, said on an Australian talk show. “It was absolutely heartbreaking. I laid by the pool and they swam over and were quite obviously crying. It was really sad.”
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