A new row has broken out over the use of dolphins to entertain guests at a restaurant in Bali.
Last week, an Indonesian federal government minister ordered the release of the illegally kept dolphins to a rehabilitation facility.
Bot conservationists say that the Akame restaurant in Benoa continued to hold dolphin shows for diners before forestry ministry officials arrived to confiscate the dolphins.
However, Bali Daily reported the two dolphins were eventually transported by truck to a facility in central Java, instead of going to a rehabilitation centre as originally proposed.
“The dolphins are to be transported inhumanely for 20 hours or more to be put in a condition even worse than that noted by the minister as being ‘cruel and unacceptable’,” said a spokesman for a wildlife rescue organisation.
The dolphins are understood to be heading to an animal captivity facility for a travelling circus in central Java.
“It is widely documented that this is where the dolphins were originally kept and sold to unlicensed commercial exploitation facilities around the country,” said wildlife rescue and rehabilitation manager, Femke Den Haas.
