Sunday, 3rd August 2008
Malta dolphin park listed among 'cruellest' destinations
The Mediterraneo park is very popular with locals and foreigners. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli.
The Mediterraneo Marine Park in Bahar in-Caghaq has been listed as one of seven cruel destinations by the largest animal rights organisation in the world.
For several children and adults alike, the Mediterraneo Marine Park provides the perfect platform to observe closely the intelligence and beauty of dolphins. But for PETA, the 'swimming with dolphins' programme has miserable consequences for these mammals.
Dolphins in this type of programme were captured in the wild or imported from conflict-ridden countries, it said. They would never be able to swim in the vast oceans, and may become frightened by being constantly surrounded by clambering tourists.
When asked why Mediterraneo has been put on the same list as the brutal bull-running festival in Pamplona, a spokesman for PETA UK told The Sunday Times that members of the public who had visited the Malta park were horrified to find dolphins kept in small tanks. They had also alleged that the dolphins showed signs of illness and injury.
"Dolphins are highly intelligent, social beings who travel with their close-knit families for up to 50 miles a day in the open ocean. By confining them for eternity to tanks that are, to them, the size of a bathtub, and forcing them to perform silly, repetitious and meaningless tricks and swim in endless circles, is subjecting them to unforgiveable cruelty," the spokesman said.
PETA said dolphin shows provided no educational benefit for the public - in fact, they taught children all the wrong lessons about wildlife - and the 'swim with the dolphins' programmes were universally condemned as humans brought diseases to dolphins.
"All that is taught is that these wonderful, social, sentient animals are ours to exploit and torture at will; not a lesson for the 21st century."
PETA suggests an alternative - anyone who wants to get close to nature should take an approved dolphin and whale-spotting holiday and enjoy animals in their natural habitat: never by patronising aquariums and marine parks that involve stress, capture, close confinement and handling.
Animal prisons posing as fun-packed and educational attractions, like zoos and aquariums, are also on the list, which includes horse-drawn carriages in Paris and the Berlin zoo.
Efforts to obtain a reaction from Mediterraneo's management proved fruitless.
RSS
Comments
htp://www.dauphinlibre.be
Belgium (whre we are proud to have obliged antwerp's zootto close his cetacan jail)
http://www.johndineley.com/marineanimalwelfare/home.htm
Interestingly among PETAs other listed Europe's Cruellest Destinations, which included bullfights and UK sea-side donkey rides, was the Zoological Society of Scotland (Edinburgh Zoo). They criticized the keeping of the chimpanzee and the newly constructed habit at this collection. However, Dr Jane Goodall, one of the world leading and outspoken researchers and advocates for the welfare of primates, described Edinburgh Zoo's new primate enclosure as a "wonderful facility" where monkeys are "are probably better off [than those] living in the wild”. Which, I think, should make anyone reading PETAs list view it with a critical eye.
I cannot imagine how PETA can compare this to the running of bulls and 'Bullfighting'. Totally incomparable in my humble opinion.
I am all for the well-being of these marvelous creatures, and if they are to be set free, so be it. I don't want to take sides...only the side of the dolphins conditions.
denying that a pond is not exactly what any dolphin would opt for an abode?
"They had also alleged that the dolphins showed signs of illness and injury."
Based on what criteria exactly?" Did they seek the opinion of a quantified vet with a specialists knowledge of marine mammals? I very much doubt that.
"swim with the dolphins' programmes were universally condemned as humans brought diseases to dolphins."
Universally condemned by whom? Animal rights activists to be certain but these are not experts on animal welfare.
Moreover, PETA has made it clear in it's closing statement that it would like all zoos and aquaria closed. therefore, it can not be seen as an objective animal welfare organisation.
If there is really concern about the welfare of animals at Mediterraneo then the authorities need to conduct an investigations using genuine experts in marine animal welfare not the views of an extremist animal rights group with an agenda
Anyone knows how to deal with such a situation?
The common people only see up to the end of their noses. They only see animals as a means of entertainment. They do not realise what the animal in question may go through - that is why we have to listen to what professionals and experts in the field have to say. We can see the animal as funny, nice, friendly ... but what about the animal's own perception of us.
Is it right to have individuals and companies making money out of the captivity of such a beautiful mammal as a dolphin?
I strongly suggest that schools, at least, listen to this statement by PETA and act accordingly.
If we really want to learn and watch these animals, well, TV would do.