Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, no matter your background, religion, political believes, profession or race, if you’ve got half an iota of compassion in your heart, then you must do something about captive animals being used for our entertainment.

Now before you start rolling your eyeballs into your forehead please note from the onset that is not going to be some other lecture about the many ways in which we humans are carelessly destroying the world. Au contraire, all I would like you to do by the end of this blog is to watch a movie. That’s all. So please read on.

If you’re one of the many who still thinks that there’s some educational value in capturing and keeping dolphins and other wild animals in captivity for our entertainment, then please watch ‘The Cove’ - an award winning documentary inspired by the work of Ric O’Barry. Ric was the one who trained the mythical ‘Flipper,’ after which he has spent the last 38 years working to release all captive dolphins back to where they belonged, and for some very good reasons too.

Celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller, have come out of the woodworks to support this cause – view the PSA here - http://www.alisonbezzina.com/the-cove/

The movie will leave no doubt in your head that there is nothing educational about keeping animals in captivity, in fact it will convince you that what Jacques Cousteau once said is absolutely true : "There is about as much educational benefit in studying dolphins in captivity as there would be studying mankind by only observing prisoners held in solitary confinement."

The reason why there’s no educational value whatsoever is that any wild animal in captivity does not behave in the same way as it would in the wild, not even remotely. Imagine a human child who is abruptly torn away from his family, who is trapped and brutally abducted by alien-looking creatures, injured in the process, flown thousands of miles away to another country, kept in a confined space, and made to perform inhuman tricks for a strange audience on a daily basis. How educational about the human race would that be? How real would that child’s behaviour be? How misled would his audience be?

Humans in their natural habitat would never behave in the way that that child in captivity would. Hence the audience watching that child would not only learn absolutely nothing, but would also be charged good money to be misinformed.

We must get as many people as possible to watch this movie, because even though it only focuses on Japan, (whilst it is obvious that the problem is much more widespread), it is presently the best tool out there to increase awareness about the whole situation.

In my mind’s eye even awareness alone is a big step ahead because for years and years, people have been misinformed about the treatment, the capture, the behaviour, the state of mind and the conditions that wild and exotic animals are kept in, and all this just to make money from presumably entertaining and educating us.

Some might be of the opinion that humans cannot possibly care about animals that they do not get the opportunity to see face to face, but I guarantee that after watching ‘The Cove’, it will be close to impossible to convince a child to go to any animal entertainment park, precisely because they will start to care so much that they will not want to be a part of the hideous cycle any more.

‘The Cove’ will convince anyone that the sugar coated theories about education and observation, about controlled research, and the supposedly humane treatment in captivity, are just a hell of a good mask to hide the multi-million dollar industry that in reality cares very little about the animals, if at all.

No matter how indifferent you presently are to this cause after watching “The Cove” you will feel compelled to stand up and be counted. You will sign the petition and you will spread the word the best you can. Hopefully some of you will go as far as boycotting anything to do with the use of animals for human entertainment and fake education.

Of course there will be those who will refuse to watch the movie because they can’t be bothered, or because they claim not to have the guts to ‘watch these things.’ Here’s my advice to both – don’t miss out! There are approximately 5 disgustingly heart wrenching minutes during which you can cover your eyes and see nothing, but believe me, it’s not worth missing.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “first they’ll ignore you, then they’ll laugh at you, then they’ll fight you, then you win!” Let’s make that happen in our lifetime.

You can watch the trailer here http://www.alisonbezzina.com/the-cove/ and the full movie will be screened for free in the Junior College Conference Room on Thursday 20th May 2010 at 7pm. Reserve your seats by emailing on romina.sah-frendo@um.edu.mt. Alternatively you may call/sms on 77550550, citing a contact person and fixed line number, to reserve the number of seats you require. Donations will be accepted and will go towards Nature Trust's proposedv turtle rehabilitation centre .