2. The annual dolphin slaughter event in Japan drove about 500 dolphins to the Taiji cove this year. The event is the town's long-held tradition, with hundreds of dolphins killed during the hunting season every year.
3. When animals wank: You've found it ... the ONLY dolphin masturbating video you'll ever need. This smartphone camera footage of a large white dolphin taken by YouTube user "alexandros malikides" back in December of 2012 is doing the rounds again.
4. 23-year-old Margaret Howe Lovatt was recruited to be part of a NASA-funded project to communicate with dolphins in the 1960s but ended up having sex with a dolphin.
5. Dutch authorities say no laws were broken during this “interplay between man and dolphin.”
Stop Navy From Condemning Dolphins to Excruciating Deaths.
Target: First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir George Zambellas
Goal: Cancel naval exercise that may result in the deaths of countless dolphins.
An upcoming army training drill will put thousands of dolphins at risk of injury and death. The British Royal Navy is due to carry out a maritime exercise using sonar, despite a similar exercise having caused Britain’s worst ever case of dolphin strandings eight years ago. After that incident, an investigation concluded that anti-submarine sonars used in a navy exercise were to blame for nearly 30 young dolphins being beached.
According to Cliff Benson, the director of animal charity The Sea Trust, mid-frequency sonar creates a sound “equal to being close up to a jumbo jet” and leads to the dolphins suffering an “excruciating death.” The area the drill is due to be carried out in is home to thousands of common dolphins.
Sign this petition demanding that this harmful naval exercise is cancelled to protect countless dolphins from disorientation, injury and death.
Dear Admiral Zambellas,
The naval exercise due to be carried out by the Royal Navy off the Welsh coast is likely to result in the deaths of countless dolphins. Eight years ago, a similar exercise using mid-frequency sonar resulted in Britain’s worst incident of dolphin strandings.
According to the Sea Trust, sonar used in these marine exercises disorients dolphins, damaging their hearing and driving them to areas where they become beached and can die “excruciating deaths.” Please cancel this training exercise at once, replacing it with one that does not put dolphins or any other animals at risk.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Bobistraveling
Shocking Photo of Dolphin In Waterless Pool Shows Why We Need to #EmptyTheTanks. It’s one thing to keep marine animals in captivity, snatched from the limitless oceans and kept in a cramped, artificial home. It doesn’t seem like it could get any worse than that. But as it turns out, it can.
At some Japanese “Dolphinariums,” dolphins go through periods of time when the tanks themselves are drained of water. Sadly, this is common practice. Once a month (and in the summer, twice) the tanks are drained for cleaning, and the dolphins can do nothing but wait for the water they so desperately need to survive to reappear. Workers empty the tanks, scrub away the algae, hose everything down, then refill the tank.
Chinese photographer Huang-Ju Chen captured the heartbreaking scene. In the photo, we see the dolphin lying on the cold floor, practically lifeless. He wrote, “I was shocked at how the staff ignored the dolphin and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to refill the pool.”
With this knowledge in hand, it’s clearer than ever that a life on display, for marine animals, is no life at all.
What Can You Do to End this Cruelty?
- Don’t support marine parks. Take a pledge to not purchase tickets from marine parks and sharing this message with family, friends, and colleagues.
- Contact government agencies and elected officials to request for them to prevent cetacean captivity.
- Sign petitions for cetaceans’ freedom and the end of breeding programs.
- Join marine activists in peaceful protests for the liberation of cetaceans.
- Check out what awesome anti-captivity heroes have done.
- Learn why there is hope for the demise of the captivity industry.
- Watch the documentary Blackfish (if you haven’t already) to learn more.
- Share this post and spread the word through social media!
Dolphins don’t belong in tiny, chlorinated tanks.
Sign the petition to ban dolphin captivity in NSW, and make this cruel practice a relic of the past: www.stopdolphincaptivity.com
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| Safe homes for harbour porpoises |
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| Lily Tomlin's Ernestine Answers Complaint Calls at 'SeaWorld' |
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A Dolphin Park Grows in the Arizona Desert. Activists are seeking to derail the $20 million attraction, which they say could harm both dolphins and humans.
Animal welfare groups are trying to stop a swim-with-the-dolphins project being built in the Arizona desert, saying the attraction will be harmful to the marine mammals and dangerous for patrons.
Located on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community tribal land near Scottsdale, the attraction appears to be owned by a Mexico-based firm called Dolphinaris, which operates several similar attractions in Mexico, and its parent corporation, Ventura Entertainment.
An employee of the construction company building the project, A.R. Mays, who asked not to be identified, said that the facility will house eight dolphins in a million-gallon tank and that visitors will be able to get into the water with the animals. He said the venue was slated to open in July.
“When we think about the idea of giant concrete pools filled with chlorinated water in the middle of the desert, it doesn’t strike me a wise use of scarce water resources,” said Courtney Vail, campaigns and programs manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, in an email. “And it’s as far from a natural environment for the dolphins as you can get.”
Opponents of the project first learned about it in January from an article on the Mexican news site SIPSE, as well as a cover story in Funworld Magazine, a publication of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. According to the Mexican article, the facility will cost $20 million.
Its location on Native American tribal land has left them with little recourse to fight the attraction.
“There is no accessibility to permitting and licensing documents and procedures that have occurred over the past two years,” Vail said. “The public only became aware of this at the eleventh hour.”
“All that’s left is for the public to demonstrate and protest the development that is now under construction,” Vail added. A petition against the project has so far received more than 3,000 signatures.
In a letter sent last week to tribal officials, the groups—including Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the Animal Welfare Institute, Earth Island Institute, and Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project—requested a meeting about the project with Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian representatives. The officials haven’t yet responded.
Blessing McAnlis-Vasquez, marketing project manager for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, told TakePart that the community does not comment on businesses it does not own.
Earlier this year, the community’s website posted two job openings at Dolphinaris.
In January, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and other groups wrote to Dolphinaris and Ventura Entertainment in opposition to the attraction, calling it “a regressive step that ignores evolving public attitudes towards this practice” and highlighting potential health risks to humans taking part in captive-dolphin encounters.
“There are a number of bacteria found in dolphins that can cause illness in humans through inhalation or wound contamination,” the letter stated, adding that participants have suffered broken bones, internal injuries, and serious wounds after being in close contact with the animals.
Some of those injuries, documented by Whale and Dolphin Conservation, have included a bruised sternum, broken arm, fractured rib, and bitten-off fingertip.
Dolphin-human encounters also put the animals at risk of increased stress, which can cause “weight loss, lack of appetite, anti-social behavior, reduced breeding success, stomach ulcers, and an increased susceptibility to disease and death” in dolphins, the letter said.
A public relations representative for Ventura Entertainment said company officials were traveling and not immediately available for comment, while the law firm representing the project, Perkins Coie, did not return telephone calls.
A spokeswoman for the Scottsdale Visitors and Convention Bureau said she had no information on the project.
Tim Murphy, an executive at Arizona-based Presidential Pools, Spas, and Patio, which boasted on Jan. 19 on its Facebook page that it was “proud to be building the main dolphin pool,” responded in an email that he was “out of town” and unavailable to comment. On March 31, the Facebook post was removed.
A Big "NO" to Captive Dolphins in Arizona!
TARGET: Mauricio Martinez del Alva - CEO, Ventura Entertainment; Amram Knishinsky - CEO, Northern Gateway, LLC
10,673 of the goal of 15,000 signed
Overview petition
Dolphinaris and its parent company - Ventura Entertainment - are moving forward with a new captive facility in Scottsdale - a suburb of Phoenix - in Arizona that will house dolphins for human entertainment.
Dolphinaris is seeking to have its first captive facility in the United States, just outside of Phoenix, on tribal land in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dolphinaris has six facilities in Mexico where guests participate in the 'swim-with-the-dolphins' [SWTD] programs.
Details outlined in the petition letter include reasons that we will strongly encourage Dolphinaris and its parent company - Ventura Entertainment - to halt the construction of the SWTD facility that is underway in Scottsdale once and for all. Dolphins - as oceangoing mammals - are NOT meant to spend their precious lives in the desert! Photo link: http://m.artelista.com/obra/7713112341483218-desierto.html
Animal welfare groups are trying to stop a swim-with-the-dolphins project being built in the Arizona desert, saying the attraction will be harmful to the marine mammals and dangerous for patrons.
Located on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community tribal land near Scottsdale, the attraction appears to be owned by a Mexico-based firm called Dolphinaris, which operates several similar attractions in Mexico, and its parent corporation, Ventura Entertainment.
An employee of the construction company building the project, A.R. Mays, who asked not to be identified, said that the facility will house eight dolphins in a million-gallon tank and that visitors will be able to get into the water with the animals. He said the venue was slated to open in July.
“When we think about the idea of giant concrete pools filled with chlorinated water in the middle of the desert, it doesn’t strike me a wise use of scarce water resources,” said Courtney Vail, campaigns and programs manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, in an email. “And it’s as far from a natural environment for the dolphins as you can get.”
Opponents of the project first learned about it in January from an article on the Mexican news site SIPSE, as well as a cover story in Funworld Magazine, a publication of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. According to the Mexican article, the facility will cost $20 million.
Its location on Native American tribal land has left them with little recourse to fight the attraction.
“There is no accessibility to permitting and licensing documents and procedures that have occurred over the past two years,” Vail said. “The public only became aware of this at the eleventh hour.”
“All that’s left is for the public to demonstrate and protest the development that is now under construction,” Vail added. A petition against the project has so far received more than 3,000 signatures.
In a letter sent last week to tribal officials, the groups—including Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the Animal Welfare Institute, Earth Island Institute, and Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project—requested a meeting about the project with Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian representatives. The officials haven’t yet responded.
Blessing McAnlis-Vasquez, marketing project manager for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, told TakePart that the community does not comment on businesses it does not own.
Earlier this year, the community’s website posted two job openings at Dolphinaris.
In January, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and other groups wrote to Dolphinaris and Ventura Entertainment in opposition to the attraction, calling it “a regressive step that ignores evolving public attitudes towards this practice” and highlighting potential health risks to humans taking part in captive-dolphin encounters.
“There are a number of bacteria found in dolphins that can cause illness in humans through inhalation or wound contamination,” the letter stated, adding that participants have suffered broken bones, internal injuries, and serious wounds after being in close contact with the animals.
Some of those injuries, documented by Whale and Dolphin Conservation, have included a bruised sternum, broken arm, fractured rib, and bitten-off fingertip.
Dolphin-human encounters also put the animals at risk of increased stress, which can cause “weight loss, lack of appetite, anti-social behavior, reduced breeding success, stomach ulcers, and an increased susceptibility to disease and death” in dolphins, the letter said.
A public relations representative for Ventura Entertainment said company officials were traveling and not immediately available for comment, while the law firm representing the project, Perkins Coie, did not return telephone calls.
A spokeswoman for the Scottsdale Visitors and Convention Bureau said she had no information on the project.
Tim Murphy, an executive at Arizona-based Presidential Pools, Spas, and Patio, which boasted on Jan. 19 on its Facebook page that it was “proud to be building the main dolphin pool,” responded in an email that he was “out of town” and unavailable to comment. On March 31, the Facebook post was removed.
TARGET: Mauricio Martinez del Alva - CEO, Ventura Entertainment; Amram Knishinsky - CEO, Northern Gateway, LLC
10,673 of the goal of 15,000 signed
Overview petition
Dolphinaris and its parent company - Ventura Entertainment - are moving forward with a new captive facility in Scottsdale - a suburb of Phoenix - in Arizona that will house dolphins for human entertainment.
Dolphinaris is seeking to have its first captive facility in the United States, just outside of Phoenix, on tribal land in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dolphinaris has six facilities in Mexico where guests participate in the 'swim-with-the-dolphins' [SWTD] programs.
Details outlined in the petition letter include reasons that we will strongly encourage Dolphinaris and its parent company - Ventura Entertainment - to halt the construction of the SWTD facility that is underway in Scottsdale once and for all. Dolphins - as oceangoing mammals - are NOT meant to spend their precious lives in the desert! Photo link: http://m.artelista.com/obra/7713112341483218-desierto.html
Urge Magician to Cancel Show at SeaWorld.
Target: Michael Grasso, Magician
Goal: Don’t perform magic show at SeaWorld San Diego where animals are confined and forced to perform.
In order to increase attendance, SeaWorld San Diego is putting together a magic show at their park. One of the magicians attending is Michael Grasso. He should not be supporting an organization that revolves around cruelty to animals.
SeaWorld is trying many different approaches to keep its company from sinking. Stock has dropped by 50 percent, 300 employees have been laid off, and one million fewer people visited SeaWorld in 2014. It seems that there is no going back now that the public is aware of the atrocities that occur at SeaWorld.
SeaWorld is a place of abuse. Sign this petition and demand Grasso cancel his show at SeaWorld San Diego.
Dear Mr. Grasso,
You are currently planning on performing a magic show at SeaWorld San Diego. SeaWorld is putting together this magic show in order to increase attendance. In 2014, one million less people attended SeaWorld than the year before.
This drop in attendance is due to the fact that more and more people are aware of the atrocities that happen at SeaWorld. Animals at SeaWorld are abused for profit, neglected, and imprisoned in small tanks. Please consider canceling your show at SeaWorld. Performing at SeaWorld supports the abuse and neglect of innocent animals.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Michael Lowin
Urge Magicians to Disappear From SeaWorld!
In a desperate attempt to right its financially sinking ship, SeaWorld San Diego is trying to trick the public into visiting the abusement park by hosting a series of magic acts.
Following the release of Blackfish, which exposed SeaWorld's animal abuse to the public, the company laid off more than 300 employees, its stock dropped 50 percent, and its attendance fell by 1 million visitors in 2014. Since then, seven high-ranking executives, including its CEO, have resigned and it has admitted to corporate espionage. Three more whales died in 2015, and Tilikum—the orca who was the subject of Blackfish—is reportedly dying.
Please urge magicians David Thomas, Rick Thomas, and Michael Turco to showcase their best disappearing acts by vanishing from SeaWorld's lineup—then share this alert with your friends and family! Click to help!
Following the release of Blackfish, which exposed SeaWorld's animal abuse to the public, the company laid off more than 300 employees, its stock dropped 50 percent, and its attendance fell by 1 million visitors in 2014. Since then, seven high-ranking executives, including its CEO, have resigned and it has admitted to corporate espionage. Three more whales died in 2015, and Tilikum—the orca who was the subject of Blackfish—is reportedly dying.
Please urge magicians David Thomas, Rick Thomas, and Michael Turco to showcase their best disappearing acts by vanishing from SeaWorld's lineup—then share this alert with your friends and family! Click to help!
Tell Musicians Not to Perform at SeaWorld’s Viva la Música!
In a desperate attempt to right its financially sinking ship, SeaWorld Orlando is targeting Latinos by putting on a Latin music festival called Viva la Música, even though celebrities such as Kate del Castillo, Carla Morrison, and Alfonso Herrera have spoken out against the sea circus.
Although major performers such as Willie Nelson, Cheap Trick, and 38 Special have joined dozens of other musicians in canceling performances at SeaWorld, Jerry Rivera and Víctor Manuelle are set to perform at the abusement park, attracting unwitting fans who will be supporting a company that forces highly intelligent orcas to perform cruel circus-style tricks and live in concrete tanks that are, to them, the size of bathtubs.
Musicians listen to their fans, so we need your help to let Rivera and Manuelle know that it's wrong to support a company that deprives complex, emotional, and social orcas of everything that's natural and important to them!
Please ask Jerry Rivera and Víctor Manuelle to do the right thing and cancel their performances at SeaWorld—then post on their social media pages to ask the same.
In a desperate attempt to right its financially sinking ship, SeaWorld Orlando is targeting Latinos by putting on a Latin music festival called Viva la Música, even though celebrities such as Kate del Castillo, Carla Morrison, and Alfonso Herrera have spoken out against the sea circus.
Although major performers such as Willie Nelson, Cheap Trick, and 38 Special have joined dozens of other musicians in canceling performances at SeaWorld, Jerry Rivera and Víctor Manuelle are set to perform at the abusement park, attracting unwitting fans who will be supporting a company that forces highly intelligent orcas to perform cruel circus-style tricks and live in concrete tanks that are, to them, the size of bathtubs.
Please ask Jerry Rivera and Víctor Manuelle to do the right thing and cancel their performances at SeaWorld—then post on their social media pages to ask the same.
