As if we needed any other reasons to hate techno music comes a report straight out of the seriously WTF department from Switzerland that two dolphins at a marine park in Lipperswil have died after a rave festival was held at the park just metres from the dolphins enclosure.

Prior to the event wildlife experts had warned bosses of the marine park against going ahead with the event saying that the banging techno music could led to stress amongst the dolphins. After the event Shadow, one of the dolphins, appeared stressed and withdrawn and was later found dead by park officials.

Just days later a second dolphin, Chelmers, also died in what marine park zookeeper Nadja Gasser described as painful. “The death was very drawn out and painful. The death went on for over an hour. It was horrendous. I have not been able to sleep since,” she told local media.

“When we went to start the dolphin training we noticed the same thing that had happened to Shadow was happening with Chelmers. 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 breath. He was given adrenalin, but it didn’t help. After an hour the dolphin died.”

The marine park has denied any wrongdoing but several animal activist groups are pursuing the operators of the park vigorously for what they say amounts to murder of the two dolphins.

ProWal and The Whale and Dolphin Protection Society recorded the sound at the event and found the vibrations from the noise could be felt outside of the park, and within earshot of the dolphins. A spokesperson from the group said “We recorded noise levels of over 100 decibels outside of the park and away from the party area. We know the party took place close to the dolphin enclosure. The sound levels which would have been heard by the dolphins is comparable with that of a pneumatic drill on top volume.”

He continued, “Before the event we warned of these noise levels and the damage which could be done and called for the event to be called off. A few days after the event Shadow became very agitated. The trainer tried to calm Shadow down, but just minutes later Shadow stopped breathing and then his heart stopped beating.”

Jurgen Ortmuller from the Whale and Dolphin Protection Society also gave his take on the situation saying “We have reasonable evidence to suggest that the extreme noise levels from the two day techno party severely affected the immune system of the dolphins. Dolphins are very sensitive creatures. We warned against a techno party taking place in this location for these very reasons.”

But the marine park continues to deny that noise was a factor in the animals deaths with their own vet countering the findings by animal activists saying “I was there and the noise would not have affected the animals. You could hardly hear anything. Connyland takes the care of its animals very seriously and they are looked after very well.”

The marine park instead have come up with their own idea about what happened and are currently conducting autopsies on the dolphins to confirm their suspicions. According to them the dolphins probably died after ingesting drugs, although it is unclear whether they mean to imply that someone at the rave fed the dolphins some disco biscuits.

The zookeeper responsible for the dolphins spoke to the media about their theory saying “I do not think Chelmers or Shadow died of natural causes. I think our dolphins have been poisoned.”

You can see our reenactment of what the incident may have been like below.

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