Letter to the Editor
Stark message in response to a dolphin trainer
Friday, May 21, 2004
The following letter was sent to us in response to a contribution to our
online forum from a “Dolphin Trainer”
Dear Dolphin Trainer,
I would like to invite you to read the full account of the capture. It will
answer your question about how we knew the divers were dolphin trainers.
Please go to this page on our website:
http://www.dolphinproject.org/?pageid=25227
You say that you have been a dolphin trainer for many years and that you
“don’t know anyone who would ever support such a scene.”
Then please tell me this: How do dolphin trainers like yourself think the
dolphins ended up in captivity in the first place?
Do you think God put them there or that they fell out of the sky?
Fact is, the dolphins that were not born into this unnatural existence were
captured from the wild, in an equally violent manner.
There is no humane way to capture these animals. There is no humane way to
chase them down. There is no humane way to drag them aboard a boat or force
them to ground in shallow water. And there is no humane way to separate a
mother from her baby.
It is not surprising that dolphins have died from what the captive dolphin
industry refers to as “capture shock.”
“Most Dolphin Trainers have dedicated their lives to protecting dolphins
and their environments,” you say.
Then why are dolphin trainers all over the world not in uproar over the
proliferation of dolphin captures?
When dolphins were being captured off the coast of Florida during the 1980s
to be shipped to various dolphinariums, including a discothèque in Switzerland
and a shopping mall in Canada, were the dolphin trainers there to protect
them?
And when dolphins are being killed and massacred in Japan today, are the
dolphin trainers there to protect them?
No, they are not. On the contrary, members of the dolphin captivity
industry take advantage of the dolphin drives to obtain show-quality dolphins
for their facilities.
We suspect that this is why you never hear institutions such as the
International Marine Animal Trainers Association (IMATA) openly and
compellingly speak out against the gruesome dolphin drives: Some of their
colleagues obtain dolphins through these massacres.
Another of your arguments in favour of dolphin captivity is: “By allowing
people from all over the world to experience dolphins on your beautiful island
surrounded by your beautiful ocean, you will be leaving an emotional mark in
their heart that will lead them to make environmentally responsible decisions
regarding recycling, reducing waste, automobile emissions, littering,
conservative use of our natural resources.”
This is a claim we have often come across, but it does not reflect reality.
Yes, we need to stop polluting the oceans. We need to stop littering, drift
netting and over-fishing. And we need to stop capturing, exploiting, and
killing dolphins for casual amusement.
To add to the destruction of nature by capturing dolphins is not going to
solve any of our environmental problems. The contrary is true: The capture,
confinement and commercial exploitation of dolphins enforce the widespread
misconception that nature and its inhabitants exist for humans to make use of
as we please.
Indeed, dolphin shows and captive dolphin swim programmes only serve to
perpetuate our utilitarian perception of nature.
You go on to pose the following question: “Why do you think so many people
are passionate about dolphins who have never even seen an ocean? They have
seen them in oceanariums! Why were we able to get the support of the vast
majority of the public to restrict tuna fishing practices? Because people have
an intense love of dolphins based on seeing them in oceanariums!
Please consider this: Humpback whales are appreciated and protected by
people who have never seen a humpback whale.
On the other hand, the elephants and tigers are on the brink of extinction
today, despite the fact that these animals have been displayed in zoos and
circuses for thousands of years.
Captivity of dolphins is not driven by a desire to protect them, and the
cruel methods used to capture them reflect this.
The paying audience has a great time in dolphinariums only because the
truth is withheld from them.
The business of capturing dolphins and training them in abnormal behaviours
is based on deceiving the audience. It has to be: If the public knew the truth
behind the dolphin spectacle, they would revolt against it. In other words,
they wouldn’t buy a ticket.
Just one example of the methods used by dolphinariums to deceive the
audience:
In a training manual used by tour guides at Sea World, Orlando, Florida,
the employees are told to avoid the words “captured,” “cage,” “tank,” and
“captivity.” Instead they must use the words “acquired,” “enclosure,”
“aquarium,” and “controlled environment.”
The training manual goes on to say about the words “dead” and “die:” “If
people ask you about a particular animal that you know has passed away, please
say, “I don’t know.”
In other words, dolphin trainers are told to lie to the public.
There are 49 dolphinariums in Japan. Every year, millions of people walk
through the gates of these dolphinariums, yet the general public in Japan is
unaware that dolphin massacres even exist.
What does that tell you? It tells you that the argument about educating the
public is false.
The dolphinariums have failed to educate the public to the biggest
slaughter of dolphins in the world!
During a visit to the Japanese dolphinarium Sea Paradise, we had a long
conversation with the dolphinarium’s curator. When we asked him what the
Japanese dolphinariums were doing to educate the public to the dolphin drives,
his answer was: “Nothing.”
When we asked him what other dolphinariums around the world were doing to
educate the public to the massacres, he said: “To my knowledge, nothing.”
When asked why this was, his reply was: “How can dolphinariums in the
United States and other countries criticise the dolphin massacres in Japan,
when members of their own industry buy dolphins from the Japanese whalers,
thereby keeping the tradition of dolphin drives alive?”
He openly admitted that most of the about 500 captive dolphins in Japan were
purchased from the whalers, and that this is a very convenient way to obtain
dolphins.
No, the article was not exaggerated for effect. In fact, words cannot
possibly fully describe the horror scenes we witnessed.
This dolphin capture is simply the cruelest thing we have ever seen. The
images of the panic-stricken dolphins and the sound of their frantic cries
will stay with us forever.
We spent three weeks in Taiji, and I don’t recall one night when we were
able to really sleep. The things we witnessed were too brutal, almost surreal.
The most shocking part, to me, is the fact that members of the dolphin
captivity industry are not getting together in an effort to stop the atrocity
of the dolphin massacres, once and for all.
Dolphin trainers and owners of dolphinariums talk so much about how they
want to “protect” dolphins. When does this protection begin?
How about protecting them from being yanked out of the ocean and dragged
away from their pod members to be sentenced to lifelong confinement?
Why not educate the paying audience to the necessity of protecting dolphins
from this kind of inherent abuse?
The answer is obvious: If dolphinariums encouraged the audience to protect
dolphins from the horror of capture, the show would be over.
The only comfort I could find while seeing these helpless animals being
dragged ashore by dolphin trainers was the fact that One Voice was on the
scene to document it and spread the word to the rest of the world about the
ugly truth behind the glittering captive dolphin spectacle.
We were there to represent all the dolphins that were maimed, abused and
killed on this tragic day, by members of an industry that will tell you that
they chose their profession out of a “love” for dolphins.
Dolphins are being captured at this very minute in various parts of the
world to meet consumers’ demand for swimming with dolphins and watching them
perform, a demand created by the very same industry that you work for.
I don’t know if you are currently employed as a dolphin trainer. If you
are, I can’t help but wonder which facility you work for, and whether or not
this facility would openly oppose the dolphin massacres in Japan?
And would the facility be willing to officially distance itself from
dolphinariums that obtain dolphins from the dolphin drives?
This would be a very big help in our effort to stop the dolphin massacres.
Please let me know.
Helene O’Barry
Field Correspondent, One Voice, France
www.onevoice-ear.org
www.dolphinproject.org
The Sun Sentinel is running a five-part series on the marine park
entertainment industry. The series is entitled “Below the Surface” and can be
accessed here:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-marinestorygallery,0,2119297.storygallery?coll=sfla-home-dots-utility
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