No Trick = No Treat for Dolphins
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Ric O'Barry, Dolphin Project
November 2018

While marine parks and aquariums will have you believe the mammals are enjoying their lives performing tricks, the reality is far more sinister.

captive dolphin

If you find this image of a dolphin balancing a hoop on its rostrum disturbing, you’re in good company: we do, too. And yet, this is the sad reality of cetacean captivity. While marine parks and aquariums will have you believe the mammals are enjoying their lives performing tricks, the reality is far more sinister.

Dolphins, like the ones brutally captured a few days ago from the waters around Taiji, Japan are perfectly adapted to the wild. When separated from their pods and placed in tanks, their natural instincts which help them navigate, hunt for prey and raise their young are suppressed. They become wholly reliant on their trainers for basic necessities to stay alive, including food.

Taiji dolphin capture
Wild dolphins wrangled into submission during captive selection, Taiji, Japan. Credit: DolphinProject.com

While it would be foolish for a marine park to starve their entertainers, food withholding is still routinely used as a motivator to keep the dolphins hungry and willing to perform. Imagine what this must feel like for a free-ranging creature of the sea to be removed from an ever-changing fluid world, then dumped into a tiny walled-in space, with nothing to look forward to but “more of the same,” day after day. It’s enough to make one go mad – and oftentimes, they do.

Dolphin Project is currently on-the-ground in Taiji, Japan and will continue to document these atrocities against dolphins for the entire hunting season. Our cameras are here to expose, to educate, and to keep the world informed. Your generous support allows us to tell their stories, and fight to protect their freedom.

exhausted Taiji dolphin
Exhausted bottlenose dolphin spyhops in The Cove during brutal captive selection. Credit: DolphinProject.com

Please help make a difference for dolphins, and share this email with your friends and colleagues. Every action counts and is greatly appreciated.

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