Dolphins Are Dying To Amuse You

When you teach a child not to step on a buttery, you are helping the child as much as the buttery.
Ric OBarry, Flippers former trainer
If you love dolphins please think twice before contributing to their capture and captivity.
The implicit message given to every child taken to a captive dolphin facility is that it is okay to take these creatures from their families for our amusement; that their freedom and happiness is secondary to our entertainment.
DOLPHINS ARE DYING TO AMUSE YOU
Join Us
The undersigned organizations are working to protect dolphins from all threats: sonar and other deadly sound, shing nets, toxic pollution and connement for commercial gain. Please consider putting your love for dolphins to work on their behalf. Dont swim with captive dolphins. Let them stay wild. Advocates for Animal Rights (Bahamas) Animal Protection Institute Animal Rights Hawaii Animal Welfare Institute ASMS OceanCare (Switzerland) Bahamas Humane Society Captive Dolphin Awareness Foundation Cetacean Society International Coalition for No Whales in Captivity Committee for a Dophinarium-Free Belgium The Dolphin Project Earthcare (Bahamas) Earth Island Institute Elsa Nature Conservancy (Japan) Environmental Investigation Agency Finns for the Whales (Finland) Free Willy/Keiko Foundation Fundacin Cethus (Argentina) Grupo Ecologico Mayab (Mexico) Humane Society Canada In Defense of Animals Irish Seal Sanctuary (Ireland) LegaSeaS International Lifeforce Foundation Marine Connection (UK) Ocean Friends One Voice (France) reEarth (Bahamas) RseauCtacs (France) Wild Earth Foundation (Argentina) Zoocheck Canada
Hidden Hazards to Humans

Injuries
People have sustained injury from swimming with captive dolphins.1 Even cetacean trainers with extensive experience have been seriously injured. 2 Reports include broken bones, internal injuries and serious wounds requiring hospitalization.3
1. NMFS 1990; Frohoff 1993; Maas et al 1999, Samuels and Spralin 1995 2. Norns 1937, Defran Pryor 1980 3. National Marine Fisheries Service Marine Mammal Inventory Reports
Diseases
Anyone who touches marine mammals is at risk of infection from the numerous microorganisms present in the aquarium or marine environment. Blow-hole spray, as well as water contaminated with urine and feces, can facilitate the entry of a microorganism into a human host. Pathogens widespread in the marine environment include streptococci, staphylococci, proteus, psuedomonas, aeromonas, erysipelothrix, vibrios, clostridium and mycobacteria.1
1. The CRC Handbook on Marine Mammal Medicine: Health, Disease and Rehabilitation by Leslie A. Dierauf, 1990
Do you really want to put your kid in there?

Dolphins weigh as much as 450 pounds and produce three to ve times as much urine and feces as human beings. When several dolphins are permanently conned in a concrete tank or sea pen, huge amounts of sewage are produced every day. This can present a health hazard to humans entering the pool, no matter how much chlorine is added to disguise the look and smell of polluted water.
Animal Welfare Institute

PO Box 3650, Washington, DC 20027, USA (703) 836-4300 fax: (703) 836-0400 www.awionline.org
The truth about dolphin swim-with programs
Dolphins Suffer Behind the Show

Survivors of a brutal capture
Most performing dolphins are wild-caught. Cruelly chased to exhaustion by power boats, these wild dolphins are ensnared in nets and hauled onto a capture vessel, or herded into shallow sea cages. Many die. The survivors may endure the hot sun, overcrowding and dehydration. Their nal destination is a void existence in Bored and aggressive a commercial Dolphins are naturally energetic, playful and inquisitive. But when tasked with entertaining facility. tourists day in and day out with nowhere to escape, they often become bored and aggressive toward humans. Sadly, not everyone is kind to dolphins; abuse from insensitive tourists is another facet of swim-with programs.
Helene OBarry/Dolphin Project Helene OBarry/Dolphin Project
We assume the dolphins perpetual smiles show contentment, but that is just how their faces are shaped; dead dolphins still smile.
A sad tale
In the spring of 2003, Canadian An unnatural existence businessman Chris Porter arrived in the Wild dolphins do not walk on water, or jump Solomons Islands in the Pacic Ocean, north of through hoops or nod their heads on cue. These are Australia. He quickly established a bounty for every articial, forced behaviors, drilled by rote and food live dolphin captured and brought to a holding pen. Local manipulation. The staple diet of captive dolphins shermen of this civil-war ravaged nation eagerly responded. is dead sh, another sad reality of a life outside About a hundred dolphins were chased, netted and dumped in the wild. open skiffs, where they lay exposed and gasping for hours until they were moved to the lthy and increasingly crowded holding pen. Some aborted their babies, and at least seven died in the nets. In a deal Is this any way to treat a loved one? struck with a Mexican syndicate, 33 dolphins were slated to be airlifted to Cancun, Mexico for use in tourist swim-with programs at Parque Human beings cherish home, family and freedomexactly the things stolen from Nizuc; the facility is estimated to have paid $46,000 per dolphin. The dolphins when they are taken from their Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna families for a life of involuntary servitude. If we and Flora requires a thorough population study before dolphins can be truly care for these creatures, we will work to caught and internationally traded. This was not done. Only 28 arrived protect them in their ocean homes. in Cancun, and at least one has died there. The dolphins, Indian Ocean bottlenose, an exotic species to the Caribbean, were put in an area adjacent to native bottlenose dolphins, breaking quarantine rules and violating national and international law. One of the native dolphins has now died as well. Parque Nizuc continues to prot from two types of exploitation: the imprisonment of marine mammals and the cleverly veiled exploitation of the tourists who want to get close to their beloved dolphins.
Taken permanently from their families

Dolphins live in complex societies with their own cultures and dialects, maintaining close family ties with grandparents, aunts and uncles. Individuals are violently removed by the swim-with industry, with no hope of ever being reunited with their families. Young mothers, vital members of the community, are the most sought after. All captives are removed forever from the wild gene pool.
Forced to endure amputated lives

Captivity denies dolphins the ability to engage in species specic behaviors, such as swimming up to 40 miles a day and socializing. Commercial facilities are not natural habitats, and the stress of captivity and exposure to the public with no place to hide often results in stomach ulcers.
Helene OBarry/Dolphin Project
Katy Penland
cover: Bryn Barnard
...if you love them, let them be free.

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When you teach a child not to step on a buttery, you are helping the child as much as the buttery.

Ric OBarry, Flippers former trainer

DOLPHINS ARE DYING TO AMUSE YOU

Hidden Hazards to Humans

Do you really want to put your kid in there?

Animal Welfare Institute

The truth about dolphin swim-with programs

Dolphins Suffer Behind the Show

Taken permanently from their families

Forced to endure amputated lives

Helene OBarry/Dolphin Project

cover: Bryn Barnard

...if you love them, let them be free.

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