In Reply to: To swim with Dolphins in Melka or not? posted by ElliDiArt on Thursday, 16. August 2007 at 02:59 Bali Time:
just a matter of individual choice or conscience. There are objective facts and information you can use to make up your mind. This is something I know a fair bit about, as I was part of a campaign many years ago to close the dolphinarium at Warragamba Dam.
Think about dolphins in the wild, Elli. What sort of animals are they? They are animals which have the whole ocean as their home. They can, and do, swim from one side of the globe to the other. Being kept in a pool for them is like being locked in a toilet for the rest of your life is for you. It doesn't matter how clean the toilet is, or how pretty the wallpaper is on the bathroom wall or how nice the attendant is who comes to clean it, it's still barbaric, cruel, boring and depressing beyond the power of words to tell. Female dolphins held in captivity tend to kill their babies - that should tell you something about how they feel about being held captive.
Dont pay any attention to the people who post telling you that they've swum with the dolphins and that they were well looked after and seemed happy. None of them is an expert on the wellbeing of cetaceans and 'reading' their emotions is not as simple as everyone seems to think. No pool on earth, and certainly not a pool in a hotel in Bali run for profit, can come close to meeting the needs of these powerful, fast and highly intelligent creatures. I think you know that swimming with captive dolphins is wrong - you can't take pleasure in something built on suffering. If you go there you are very materially helping something wrong continue.