The past year and a half has been difficult for all of us. Being forced to isolate from family and friends, frankly, has been awful. We all hope that the days of this pandemic are numbered, and that a return to some kind of normalcy is in sight. But fortunately we’ve never had to abandon the thought that such a return was inevitable, sooner or later.
Try to imagine what this experience would have been like had we needed to go through it not knowing if it could ever end, much less when. Throughout COVID, we’ve always been able to maintain an expectation that one day, we would begin to see light at the end of the tunnel, with the thought that some time soon after that, we could begin to emerge into a world much like the one we’ve always known.
Like us, dolphins need to rely on hope that a brighter future lies ahead. They are complex, sophisticated social beings like ourselves. They need each other, and like us they need their liberty. Without it, they are just as capable of disillusionment and despair as we are. Forced into the artificial environments we provide them, at best 200 thousand times smaller than their natural ranges, they are constrained to a degree that probably equates to being locked in a tiny apartment for the rest of your life. Without the freedom to ever leave to move about in the world, or to interact with whom you want, even for a little while.
So for them, captivity is really much worse than what we’ve been experiencing during this pandemic. And don’t forget to layer on top of that the fact that you’d have no reason whatever to believe that your circumstances would ever change. How long do you think you’d remain sane under these conditions?
Cetacean captivity must one day come to an end, and the sooner the better. We cannot justify this morally abhorrent practice. Let the marine park industry know that its continuation is unacceptable. Keep the pressure on them through the choices you make as a consumer. Let them know that you don’t consider dolphins commodities that can be owned, or to be forced into a life of slavery to entertain us.
For The Orca’s Voice,
Jason, Canadian Cetacean Alliance
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