The all-Ukrainian organization UAnimals, which fights for animal rights, together with the OSINT-agency Molfar conducted an investigation and found a Russian trace in the activities of the Odessa dolphinarium “Nemo”. It probably still has ties with Russia, and its branches operate not only in the aggressor country itself, but also on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea.
A large detailed investigation by animal rights activists has been posted on the UAnimals website.
Nemo Dolphinarium in Odessa has been repeatedly accused of cruel treatment of animals, failure to maintain proper living conditions and in 2011 was even tried for illegal development and poaching of animals.
And now animal rights activists and OSINT investigators have cited a number of facts indicating close ties between the Ukrainian dolphinarium and Russian ones.
- All owners of the Nerum company, which owns the dolphinarium in Odessa (or their namesakes), are also the founders of the Russian limited liability company Ecological Center. The company is located in Anapa, continues to operate and pay taxes to the Russian budget. For example, in 2022 – 500 thousand rubles (at the current exchange rate this is more than $5.5 thousand to the budget of the state that unleashed a full-scale war with Ukraine).
- Within the Nemo franchise, it has dolphinarium branches in a number of Russian cities: Anapa, Nizhny Novgorod, Dzhubza, the village of Golubitskaya, Vityazevo.
- As of 2016, the list of dolphinariums on the Nemo website still included centers in Feodosia, Alushta, and Russian cities.
- The dolphinariums of Russian-occupied Alushta and Feodosia, as well as the dolphinarium in Minsk, have the same logos, website designs, cross-references and mentions of each other on social networks. At the same time, dolphinariums in Odessa, Almaty and Minsk offer the same gift certificates with Nemo contacts in Odessa.
- Odessa "Nemo" on its website takes into account all these branches, as well as Russian dolphin exploitation centers in Anapa, Dzhubga, Golubitskaya village: it says about 15 dolphinariums in the network (this figure can only be obtained including those that operate in Russia).
“The history of the Nemo dolphinarium network includes raiding, illegal construction and, most annoyingly, the exploitation of defenseless animals. Despite the outrage of animal rights activists and numerous lawsuits, the Nemo Dolphinarium continues to operate. Without visitors this would not be possible. Maybe, at least, the Russian trace in the activities of “Nemo” will convince Ukrainians not to support cruelty to animals with money?” – animal defenders ask questions at the end of their material.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in April 2023 in Odessa, in a hotel room at the Nemo Hotel Resort & SPA, the blogger did a photo shoot with two fur seals and published it online. This led to a wave of outrage over animal abuse. Despite the appeal of animal rights activists to the police, law enforcement officers decided to “turn a blind eye” to the fact of cruelty to animals.
