After over a year of argument with the Whale and Dolphin Protection Forum (WDSF) over various claims made over our Therapy Center, at long last the WDSF has acknowledged the judicial order made by the OLG Hamm prohibiting further such claims.
As already reported, in May 2011 we instigated a court injunction against the WDSF that prohibited certain claims they made to injure our reputation.
These claims that the WDSF made in their Boycott Campaign, which covered all dolphinariums in Turkey, including our Onmega Dolphinarium, were unacceptable; many statements concerning hotels and travel agencies, and pictures of Dolphinariums, were mixed up to coat all such facilities in Turkey ‘with the same brush’.
Our Dolphin Therapy Center compared to other Dolphinariums in Europe is the largest, and unique in that it has its dolphins swimming freely in a sea water dolphinarium. We strictly adhere to the German Animal Protection Standards and place great importance on how our animals are held, and on our qualified personnel. Our main intent of the said injunction was to stop the WDSF spreading false rumours that were obviously intended to injure our reputation.
The Landgericht Hagen as also the Oberlandesgericht Hamm in the course of this injunction examined the claims that had been made. Even though certain statements were protected by freedom of speech, the OLG Hamm prohibited the WDSF to publish claims that our dolphins were kept in small concrete pools, or that they were caught in defiance of the law against capture of wild animals, that they had scars and deep wounds, or were molested by kicks from spectators. Furthermore, the WDSF is prohibited to claim that they were threatened by us, and that we are enmeshed with the authorities in Kemer. The WDSF has also been forbidden to proclaim a Boycott and show their film, on Internet, that bunches all the various dolphin facilities in Turkey together, making false statements about our Dolphin Therapy Center.
The ruling made by the OLG Hamm is res judicata and has been accepted by the WDSF.
Because of the one-sided Reports made by the WDSF together with the court proceedings it is our wish to rehabilitate our Dolphin Therapy in this way, as we also support initiatives that are against the holding of dolphins in too small or inappropriate enclosures. With respect to our friends, Patients and their families, we could not take such injurious allegations lying down; these allegations have now been prohibited by a court order which has been accepted by the WDSF.
We are of course ready to answer any questions you may wish to ask.
We send a hearty thank you to all the children, Families and Relations, and dolphin friends for the lovely memories and trust that you have given us. Things are a little calmer now in Kemer, the days are shorter and gradually cooler. However it is not a true Winter without snow.
