Animal Liberation Malta has written to the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Welfare, asking her to withdraw Mediterraneo Park’s licence to operate a zoo.

The park, the organisation said, should become a rehabilitation centre for aquatic species.

The letter follows the death by lead poison of three dolphins at the Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq park last year.

Mediterraneo runs a programme which allows guests to swim with captive dolphins for 30 minutes, against payment.

Malta banned animal circuses in 2014 but Mediterraneo is classified as a zoo - something animal rights activists say does not hold water.    

Guests who swim with dolphins at the park are given equipment, including a wet suit and weight bags.

The weight bags are packed with hundreds of small lead pellets, which are believed to have caused the dolphins' deaths.

Spilled pellets may have been caught in the filtration system and ended in the pool again when the system carried out a backwash, Times of Malta had reported a source saying.

The park has blamed a support diver for misplacing the weight bag that caused the deaths.

Malta's animal welfare commissioner, Alison Bezzina, has said she is probing the deaths.  

Activists pushing for Mediterraneo to be shut down argue that animals there are subjected to training specifically for exhibition at paid public performances - something that should fall under the circus category as outlined in the definition of a circus from Chapter 439 of the Animal Welfare Act. 

According to the act, a "circus" is "any place where animals are introduced for the purpose of performance, manoeuvres and shows or otherwise and shall include any place where animals used in such circuses are kept or trained”.

Animal Liberation Malta said that the provision of a zoo licence to Mediterraneo Park places a public institution in default of the law.

“Given that a permit has always been issued, Mediterraneo Park is operating legally. This legality comes thanks to a license that we believe was issued irregularly by the licensing authority under your ministry," it wrote in its open letter to parliamentary secretary Alicia Bugeja Said. 

“This is why ALM believes the onus of default falls under the licensing authority and your ministry. 

“We hope that the unnecessary delays in the zoos regulations are not being done to amend the law to allow animal circuses to perform locally.”

ALM asked Bugeja Said to “immediately intervene” and see that the Animal Welfare Act is enforced and adhered to.

“We are asking you to take the necessary action for the immediate withdrawal of the operating license as a zoo...

“Animal Liberation Malta believes that the Maltese government should be at the forefront for the safeguard of cetacean welfare and marine life and that their protection should be given priority, especially by your secretariat which is also responsible for Animal Welfare and not only fisheries.”

Mediterraneo, the organisation said, should change into a rehab centre for aquatic species where true conservation can take place, putting Malta as the unique leading Mediterranean rehabilitation centre.

This case, the organisation said, is being actively supported internationally by the UK based NGO Marine Connection and the US based Dolphin Project.