I thought it a good idea to show an extended clip of what it looks like to see wild dolphins that have been confined within small holding pens for well over a month. In this video, we see that the dolphins, who normally swim for many miles each day, are only able to move in small circles. The tail-slaps you see are how these creatures express frustration (yes, dolphins have a range of emotions). Look closely and you'll see that some of them still swim in pairs, side by side, even though they've been trapped here for many days. They could be siblings or even parent and child. Dolphin families stay very close throughout their lives.

Captive dolphins are only fed a food which they would normally never eat in the wild -- dead fish. When feeding time comes around, a trainer walks onto the pens with a whistle which is blown when fish are tossed into the pens. This is a form of mental conditioning, or brainwashing, which is just the beginning of a life of begging for food in amusement parks. No animal should be subjected to such miserable conditions.

These dolphins are (some would argue) the "lucky" ones. Their parents and siblings did not fit the description of television's "Flipper", and were killed and gutted just a short distance from here. Although the meat from those dolphins was laced with toxic heavy metals, it was none the less fed to the people of Japan - often falsely labeled as "whale meat". In America, people have started suing seafood companies over mercury poisoning. In Japan, no one is willing to cause such a disruption for the negative social consequences which would follow.

If you give money to water parks that feature live animal shows, then YOU are funding this atrocity. This is not what wild animals look like... Live dolphin shows only harm this species, they do not help. We can have a greater appreciation and understanding of dolphins by viewing them in the wild or watching a documentary than seeing them jump through a hoop.

For an explanation of why dolphins don't just "jump out of the pens", see my previous posts at 23skidoo.org.