Two dolphins at a Swiss theme park died after ingesting a heroin substitute around the same time as a weekend rave at the park last November, according to reports from Switzerland.
A toxicology report from a forensics institute in St. Gallen, Switzerland, showed tests found traces of the heroin substitute buprenorphine in the dolphins' urine, according to a report in London's Daily Mail online, citing Swiss media reports.
The dolphins died within five days of each other in November, after the area near their pool in the Connyland marine park had been rented out for a weekend rave, according to the reports.
Cornelis van Elk, a Dutch marine biologist, said the drugs turn off a part of the dolphins' brains which tells them when to surface for air.
Connyland keeper Nadja Gasser told local media how one of the dolphins, named Chelmers, died, according to the Daily Mail.
"He was drifting under the water and was clearly in trouble and so we jumped into the water.
"We tried to hold him. He was shaking all over and was foaming at the mouth.
"Eventually we got him out of the water. His tongue was hanging out. He could hardly breathe.
"He was given adrenalin, but it didn't help.
"After an hour the dolphin died."
In a report in the Daily Mail shortly after the rave, wildlife experts said noise from the event could have stressed the animals' immune systems and led to the death of the first dolphin, Shadow.
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the park officials are at fault for having the rave near the animals and not policing the area more effectively. I hope they enjoyed the few thousand euros they made off the silly rave.
Dolphins die of drug overdose???? HOW DID THE DRUG GET THERE?!?!?! what kind of article is this???
Sometimes I really hate humans.
at times I am all for nature creating a mega virus that wipes out 99.9998% of the human population. Humans destroy everything. What have we improved on this planet, other than self serving things.
animalluvr, why don't you be the first to off yourself then. We'll all follow your lead; I promise.
"after the area near their pool in the Connyland marine park had been rented out for a weekend rave"
so not only did they let them use the area near the dolphin pool ... they weren't smart enough to move the dolphins beforehand? They can only blame themselves in that case, congratulations Connyland marine park you killed 2 of your dolphins.
eurotrash. d bags get a life. europe is a slum.
"In March, the Swiss Parliament voted to end all imports of live dolphins into the country. Because Connyland is the only park that houses dolphins in Switzerland, the new law is essentially a Connyland-only mandate. When the few dolphins still living at the amusement park die, no more will be brought in to replace them"
good news for future dolphin generations, they won't have to live where morons rent out the area to rave parties
i got out of godforsaken europe over ten years ago, thank the lord. the entire continent will be run by corrupt billionaire nobility, drug dealing gangsters, and muslims in another decade. mark my words,
I never touched the junk until after our first album when we went on a dive in the bahamas to go see the dolphins. Those dudes were so cool; just swimming around doing all sorts of dolphin stuff. Then they took me back to their apartment. I think his name was Flipper; anyways he asked if I ever shot up. From that point on I was hooked. I would try and quit but the dolphins are mad good at communication and they always wanted their money. I go over there to pay them off and the next thing you know they're jumping out of the water and tying me off while bouncing a rubber ball back and forth. They say they just wanna party and I'm they're friend but the guys keep telling me those e f f ing dolphins aren't my friends and they're going to kill me one day. Crazy dolphins...get a job, flipper.
....oooookay.
Why is everyone so quick to blame the humans? Have you considered that maybe it was the dolphins who organized the rave and supplied the narcotics? I thought not.
Being smarter than humans, dolphins are smarter than THAT.
You sir, are full of WIN.
I don't see a raver giving up their drugs to some dolphins. You sure they didn't used to be opiate addicts? I mean buprenorphine is used for people getting off opiates. I say they are trying to hide the fact that the dolphins were junkies.
uhm, how is this obama's fault?
Drugs kill dolphins! Might be the most effective anti-drug message for kids ever.
That might actually work
sweet. more bad press for the EDM scene. sucks that a few slobs have to make the rest of us look bad.
A few slobs? I bet at any given time the majority of kids at a rave will be on some kind of drug (including alcohol). The fact that you can't even go to one of these drug-fests without worrying about contact highs tells you something.
Agreed. I've been in the EDM scene since before dubstep turned it into ragers and bros. It used to be one of the most fantastic and pure things in the world and it really wasn't about the drugs, even though they were there. Now it's all about analogs of analogs of analogs making people into hostile zombies. It's a damn shame. I really don't understand why a heroin analog would be at a rave though. No one's doing heavy opiates and trying to go dance. That's just absurd.
IDIOTS