The dispute over the fate of two orcas in France has escalated into a legal and political battle over transparency in Spain. The Loro Parque Group has filed an administrative lawsuit against the Spanish Scientific Authority (CITES), which reports to the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN), accusing it of opacity for refusing to publish a key report blocking the transfer of the cetaceans to Tenerife.
The backdrop is the crisis at the French aquarium Marineland, which has closed permanently and has two orcas in danger, given the threat of collapse of its facilities. Loro Parque offered itself as the only viable sanctuary in Europe. However, the Spanish Scientific Authority (CITES), according to the park, has issued a recommendation against the transfer but refuses to show the opinion that supposedly supports it, violating the Law on Access to Environmental Information.
The president of the Loro Parque Group, Wolfgang Kiessling, did not hesitate to call the situation implausible and the lack of transparency in CITES unacceptable, especially when animal welfare is at stake. The legal move is no coincidence: it is an institutional clash between regional criteria and central bureaucratic power.
While Madrid remains silent, the Canary Islands Government has issued two technical reports, signed by its Livestock and Natural Spaces departments. These documents fully endorse Loro Parque's record on animal welfare, its regulatory compliance, and, crucially, its proven ability to house orcas, highlighting the transfer to Tenerife as the best solution to avoid euthanasia in France. "Two independent reports from the Canary Islands Government endorse Loro Parque's record on animal welfare, its compliance with European and national regulations, and its proven ability to house orcas."
The Tenerife park insists that, as an opinion evaluating its own facilities, the document directly affects them and constitutes publicly available environmental information. The lack of response to the director of the MNCN since June 12, 2025, demonstrates, for Loro Parque, an unjustified blocking strategy.
The dispute goes beyond a simple conflict between a zoo and a bureaucrat. The transfer of the French orcas, if implemented, would be a political and prestigious victory for the Canary Islands and for Loro Parque, reinforcing its international image as an elite conservation center. By refusing to make its report transparent, the Spanish CITES system is keeping the orcas in a state of "total uncertainty" and opening the door to the most tragic option being considered in France: euthanasia. This refusal not only violates the transparency law, but also forces the French government to consider options that the Canary Islands' reports consider ethically and scientifically inferior.
The contentious lawsuit and the request to the Transparency Council are Loro Parque's response to force the Madrid bureaucracy to account. It is proof that in Spain, even decisions affecting protected species remain trapped in the opacity of unpublished technical reports and the hidden conflict between administrations. The ball is now in the courts.
