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Dolphins Suffer In Captivity
By Eliza Bicknell of Lotus Petal Yoga
Dolphins are intelligent, self aware, sensitive, highly emotional, creative and playful creatures. As mammals, they breathe air and suckle their young just like we do. They share loving family relationships and have been swimming in the Earth’s seas for over 50 million years. Dolphins and other whales could be said to dominate the seas, which cover 70 % of our Earth’s surface, just like we dominate the land, the other 30%. Currently there are hundreds of dolphinaria all over the world and more are being established all the time. A dolphinarium is a place where you can see dolphins perform or where you can swim with the dolphins. The first dophinarium to open was in 1938 at Marine Studios in St. Augustine, Florida, USA. Most countries that have dolphinaria also have laws in place that protect against animal cruelty, but these laws do not apply to dolphins held in captivity. Loopholes exist because displaying dolphins publicly for money is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Hunters of dolphins, suppliers and shippers, marketers, park construction workers, trainers etc all cash in. Some argue that dolphinaria are educational facilities, like zoos, they say that people would never otherwise get to see a dolphin. People visiting a dolphinaria see trained captive dolphins, dolphins held in small concrete cages acting like clowns, not dolphins in their natural habitat, behaving as dolphins normally would. There are millions of animals in this world that people will never get to see and millions of extinct animals people will never get to see. The argument for dolphinaria as educational facilities is a fraud. Many people think that just because the dolphin is smiling they must be happy and love to perform tricks for us. The dolphins ‘smile’ is the way the dolphin looks, be it performing for you or dead on the floor in front of you, its facial expression does not change. Here are just a few of the issues dolphins face in captivity: Captures of dolphins from the wild are stressful and traumatic. Numerous dolphins die during this process and these numbers are never revealed at the dolphinaria. One of the most lucrative places for dolphin capture is in Taiji Japan. Here dolphins are rounded up by the thousands and a select few are captured for dolphinaria around the world. These dolphins sell for as much as $150,000 each. The remaining dolphins (around 23,000 a year) are herded into a small cove, closed to the public, and slaughtered because they are viewed by Japanese government officials as pests to be eradicated in huge numbers. The meat from these dolphin kills is sold to consumers in Japan and labeled as whale meat (dolphin meat is not a delicacy in Japan and whale meat is). Dolphin meat is high in mercury and far exceeds (by up to 35 times) the recommended levels of mercury which is safe for human consumption. Most consumers in Japan don’t even know this is going on and probably would not support it if they did. An excellent documentary, The Cove, See a trailer for the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRD8e20fBo discusses these practices in detail. To learn more about the horrible tragedies that take place at Taiji in Japan, go to: www.savejapandolphins.org/taijitown.php To train dolphins to behave the way they do in dolphin acts, dolphins are deprived of food. They are not performing because they want to or think its fun. Remember, that smile is there no matter what the dolphin feels, even if its misery and starvation. Dolphins use highly developed sonar to navigate and swim up to 40 miles per day. Being confined in a small concrete tank would be like us living in a hall of mirrors. Their sounds are constantly bouncing back at them day and night, enough to drive them into despair. All dolphins in captivity are treated for ulcers due to the stress that this causes. Many dolphins, in an act of suicide, batter themselves to death against the walls of their prison. Many others commit suicide by holding their breath, others refuse to eat. (Note: this suicide option the dolphin takes is another proof of his self-awareness, without which suicide would never even occur to him.) In addition, the water in these tanks is chemically treated artificial salt water. You can help captive dolphins and the slaughter of thousands of these incredible creatures by not supporting dolphinaria, don’t take your kids to Sea World, instead take them out to sea and explain why you have made such a decision. You can also actively protest when a new dolphinaria is to be built. Hundreds of dolphinaria have been shut down or have never opened as a result of protest actions by concerned citizens.
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Contributor's Note
The documentary The Cove won numerous awards and should be seen by everyone, I highly recommend it.
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http://www.squidoo.com/dive-manta-ray
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I'm glad you mentioned The Cove. Everyone should see that movie. Thanks.
Great intel. I'm not familiar w/ The Cove; I'll check it out, thanks!
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