I wonder how many readers have actually heard of Richard O’Barry. Ric, as he is affectionately known by many people worldwide, is the world famous dolphin trainer – the man behind the capture and training of the legendary Flipper – a TV series that I loved to watch as a child.

I used to think that dolphins in captivity have a whale of a time! What with being fed, nuzzling up to friendly humans eager to get a photo taken, jumping through loops at the blow of a whistle… what could possibly be wrong with that? Why can these animal rights activists never be content? Surely these dolphins must be better off than their counterparts in the wild, where so many get caught in fishing nets around the world!

This idea of mine was soon shattered when I watched The Cove – an award-winning documentary filmed in Japan, that was also recently shown on Animal Planet. The Cove highlights precisely how dolphins are caught in the wild. During these dolphin hunts, entire pods are driven into an enclosed area, after being terrified by the wall of sound created by hunters banging on metal poles in the sea. The area is then made secure, thanks to nets set up around the area.

The next day, dolphin trainers from around the world come to select a number of these dolphins, commonly the bottlenose variety, well, anything that is similar to Flipper – the “King of the Ocean”.

The “chosen” ones are placed in wooden crates and transferred onto trucks and planes, that segregate them forever from the family and the ocean they belonged to. After all this stress, they are placed in concrete tanks, made to perform silly tricks which are so degrading to their infinitely intelligent nature. What happens to these dolphins’ next of kin? After being rounded up, the rest of the family are massacred in a most brutal manner; the air is filled with cries that send a chill down my spine as I write. The sea turns red, with the blood of creatures who have saved so many human beings a countless number of times over the ages.

All this was unknown until strategically-placed secret cameras revealed the harrowing episode that goes on to this day. Dolphin meat is then sold, under the guise of “whale meat” in several stores throughout the country.

What the labelling on the food omits to mention, however, is the amount of mercury found in the meat, that effectively poisons all those who eat it, including the thousands of schoolchildren who are forced to eat this toxic substance as per school rules. The Cove shows how, in some dolphinariums, people watch dolphin shows and eat dolphin meat at the same time! It is not species propagation or humanity that has the last say here. It’s the profit that counts.

Does all this have anything to do with the seemingly beautiful photo released to the press a few days ago showing the world the second calf born in captivity in Malta? Yes, it does. Flipper or Cathy (which was her real name) loved life as a world-famous captive dolphin/performer so much, that one fine day, she called out to her trainer, took one last breath, and refused to take another, thus sinking to death at the bottom of her tank. A heart-broken Ric then vowed to quit this lucrative business and release each and every dolphin in the wild where they rightfully belong. How many dolphins have died in Malta in captivity?

Flipper is by far not an isolated case. We have abused animals for far too long – their exploitation must stop. Please do not let Flipper’s ultimate message go unheard – let us enjoy these sentient creatures in the wild where they belong.