Wikie and Keijo: Not to Loro Parque!
In 2021, France decided to end cetacean shows and the keeping of cetaceans for entertainment purposes within five years, by December 2026. Yet following the closure of Marineland Antibes in January 2025, one crucial question remains unanswered: what future awaits Wikie and her son Keijo, the last two orcas in captivity in France?
Today, their transfer to Loro Parque in Tenerife appears imminent. In other words, rather than finding a solution consistent with the spirit of French law, the problem would simply be moved to Spain.
In early June 2026, FFW visited Loro Parque to see first-hand what would await Wikie and Keijo there. Its findings were damning: orcas and dolphins are still kept and exhibited to entertain tourists and are subjected to captive-breeding programmes. Twice a day, they jump, pose, obey commands and perform routines before an audience, to the sound of deafening music and applause. For a species whose perception of the world is primarily acoustic, this is nothing short of torture.
The “urgency” invoked by Marineland and the French government to justify rapidly sending Wikie and Keijo to Loro Parque is the direct result of a lack of foresight on the part of both the French marine park and France itself following the legislative amendment adopted in 2021. This situation cannot justify decisions that run counter to the animals’ welfare. They must continue to be cared for in Antibes for as long as necessary, until a marine sanctuary genuinely suited to their needs is able to accommodate them.
Like Switzerland more than ten years ago, France now recognises that orcas and dolphins have no place in captivity and that shows involving cetaceans are unacceptable. It cannot now export the consequences of its decision to Spain by sending its last two orcas to a facility that perpetuates the very outdated model it has rejected. Moreover, under CITES, Spain’s Scientific Authority has issued a negative opinion on their transfer to Loro Parque—an opinion that must be respected by the French authorities.
Spain, too, must act. It still has the largest number of operating dolphinariums in the European Union, with around one hundred dolphins and several orcas held in facilities intended for public display. Taking in additional cetaceans would merely prolong the problem and reinforce Spain’s role as a refuge for a declining industry.
This is why FFW is now mobilising its political contacts in Spain. It is urgently calling for the 2023 Animal Protection and Welfare Act to be amended in order to prohibit cetacean shows and commercial interactions, prevent any new arrivals at dolphinariums, and establish a genuine roadmap for moving away from this model.
In the immediate term, this reform could be one of the last remaining ways to prevent Wikie and Keijo from being sent to Loro Parque.
