擔心虎鯨母子近親繁殖　法水族館驚傳飼養員「幫忙打手槍」紓壓

▲虎鯨母子Wikie與Keijo仍生活在廢棄園區中。（圖／翻攝自TikTok／wearetidebreakers）

記者李振慧／綜合報導

法國一間已經關閉的海洋公園傳出驚人消息，動保人士踢爆，海洋公園雖然已經關閉，但廢棄水池中仍有一對虎鯨母子生活在裡面，園方爲了避免近親繁殖行爲，工作人員竟然幫小虎鯨「打手槍」解決生理需求，批評作法「是圈養業的道德墮落」。

法國當局去年年底通過新法案，禁止海豚和鯨魚等動物繼續表演，使得當地海洋公園Marineland Antibes於今年1月關閉。然而園區關閉至今，法國政府與動保人士對於海洋動物的安置方式與地點等問題仍無法達成共識，導致仍有海洋生物生活在廢棄園區中，其中包含一對虎鯨母子，24歲母親Wikie與11歲Keijo。

UPDATE: TideBreakers Responds to Disturbing Footage of Keijo The TideBreakers team travelled to Marineland Antibes last week. We monitored the tanks over the course of several days from dawn until dusk to assess the conditions for Wikie, Keijo and the 12 dolphins. Trainers were absent most of the day and the orcas were unsupervised and unstimulated for most of the day. Footage revealed severe neglect. The medical tank was covered in algae and the orcas exhibited signs of boredom and frustration, such as beaching themselves to reach toys for hours at the time. We captured disturbing footage that shows trainers sexually stimulating Keijo, without gloves or semen collection bags—indicating an alarming disregard for industry norms. We believe this was likely a training session for artificial insemination. Artificial insemination (AI) is a practice the marine mammal industry uses so they don’t have to collect killer whales from the wild, or move animals between parks to breed. Marineland claims the stimulation was to reduce sexual tension, not for AI. However, we’ve spoken to a number of industry experts who confirm this practice is not the standard care for captive killer whales. From a training perspective, reinforcing Keijo’s sexual behavior in a shared tank with his mother is reckless, and likely to increase sexual activity, not reduce it. Furthermore sexual gratification of animals outside AI protocols is often considered animal abuse. Keijo needs to be rescued from an environment that is unsafe. Every day he’s stuck at Marineland puts his life at risk. Please visit TideBreakers.org and click on our Marineland Antibes campaign to write a letter to President Macron demanding action for Wikie, Keijo and the 12 dolphins trapped at Marineland.

海洋保護組織TideBreakers近來對外表示，他們獲得一段空拍影片，影片中拍到，飼養員爲了避免虎鯨母子近親繁殖，一名飼養員幫忙抓住Keijo後，另一名飼養員幫小虎鯨「打手槍」的誇張畫面。

事件曝光後，海洋公園向英國媒體BBC澄清，他們幫年輕虎鯨解決生理需求，除了防止近親繁殖行爲，同時也能幫助緩解Keijo的緊張情緒，以避免打架受傷，「這對動物來說是完全無痛且自然的」。

園方說法後來遭到TideBreakers人員Valerie Greene駁斥，身爲前虎鯨飼養員的他指出，他以前從來沒有見過這種做法，認爲海洋公園真正的目的是在人工取精，計劃把精液販售給相關法規比較寬鬆的日本，批評園方作法十分墮落。

報導中指出，在海洋公園嘗試把這些海洋動物，遷移至日本、西班牙或加拿大等做法遭到當局拒絕或失敗後，目前仍有十幾只海洋動物生活在廢棄海洋公園中。