The images in the following program are very sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals.

The main thing is space, for such a large species as Orca to be in such a small, confined space. Even the biggest tank isn’t that big to them. They can only go maybe five full strokes before they hit the wall, and have to turn. This is just nothing compared to the natural world.

Thoughtful viewers, this is the Stop Animal Cruelty series on Supreme Master Television. Following a recent tragic accident in the United States involving an Orca whale at a marine park, members of the media, animal advocates, marine mammal experts and concerned individuals around the world are renewing their call for the immediate release of all captive whales and dolphins.

These highly intelligent, social beings experience extreme stress and suffering when put on display in small tanks, with some being forced to perform in shows for the public’s amusement. Members of the dolphin family, Orcas are found in all the Earth’s oceans, where they love to socialize with one another. The young remain with their mothers for life in a family group or “pod” consisting of the mother, her adult offspring and those of her daughters.

Another well-known dolphin species, the Bottlenose, is the most likely of all dolphins to be imprisoned in aquariums. For the sake of so-called “entertainment,” Bottlenose dolphins and Orcas are heartlessly stolen from their families and robbed of their freedom. Dr. Naomi Rose, an expert on marine mammal protection from the US-based animal welfare organization Humane Society International, shares her thoughts on this inhumane practice.

For Orcas, the family bonds are everything; they live in very tight family units, and there is nothing, nothing whatsoever about Orcas in captivity that’s natural. They take calves away from their mothers, they have whales from different oceans in the same tank, which of course never happens in the wild.

They separate the breeding males out from the group because they don’t want them to breed indiscriminately, and the disruption is completely unnatural in the wild. A male calf would stay with his mother for his entire life, and in captivity he is isolated a lot of the time.

Capture of gentle Bottlenose and other dolphins for captivity in parks may occur while their brethren are being violently massacred by fisherman. Dr. Lori Marino, a senior lecturer in the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Office at Emory University, USA has done extensive research on Bottlenose dolphin intelligence and now discusses these bloodbaths and how they are linked to dolphin shows.

Dolphins, believe it or not, are beloved animals but are also the most abused animals around the planet. And they are being slaughtered in many different kinds of activities, including in Denmark, in the Solomon Islands, but most particularly and most infamously in Taiji, Japan. In Taiji, Japan annually from September to March tens of thousands of Bottlenose dolphins and Pilot whales and other small whales are herded into the killing cove and literally are just slaughtered. They’re just hacked to death. The water turns red with their blood.

And this kind of activity was depicted in the movie “The Cove,” and I urge anyone who really wants to know what’s going on around the world with dolphins to see that movie. It’ll be a real eye opener because you begin to realize that we’re doing some pretty awful things to these animals. Now the important point, too, about the Taiji drives is that they are financially underwritten by the captivity industry. And that’s something that people don’t know.

Now in this country (USA), there’s a moratorium on taking animals from the wild, but outside of the United States, many countries use the Taiji drive hunts to take animals out of that and put them into captivity. So what you will see in the killing cove is while animals are being slaughtered.

Mothers, children and whole social groups are literally being slaughtered, their throats are being cut, in the foreground, there are marine mammal trainers from marine parks all over the world knee-deep in blood, picking out the attractive dolphins and taking them away from their social group to be brought into their marine parks to entertain you. Once people get that connection, I think they will start to see the entertainment shows that marine parks put on as a very, very different enterprise than what they want you to think.

It is absolutely the most traumatic, desperate situation for these animals. In the movie, "The Cove," you’ll actually see a point where a young calf jumps out of the water and hits the rocks. It is so desperate to get away from the carnage that it actually leaves the ocean and hits the shore. And it is just the most unbelievable blood bath that I’ve ever seen in my life.

This multi-billion dollar “dolphin abusement park industry,” I call it, is really based on an illusion. The dolphin’s smile is nature’s greatest deception. It creates the illusion; “They actually like doing this job, because they’re always smiling.” And you go there and the music is playing, you have your family with you and the sun is out.

And what could be wrong with this? And they’re smiling back at you. So it’s hard to define the problem. It’s not apparent like it is in the cove. Unless you are actually hitting the dolphin with a baseball bat, you don’t see the abuse. When I go there I see it, because I can read their body language.

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In captivity, all of this is taken away, (life) becomes very sterile, very monotone, very boring. And I don’t think that’s just a minor thing, I think it is actually a very major, stressful thing to have all of that variety, all of that texture, and all of the complexities taken away from him.

This is the Stop Animal Cruelty series on Supreme Master Television, where we’re focusing on the trauma endured by marine mammals in captivity.

The Orcas are very, very large. And they’re probably the largest species currently held in captivity. The large males are probably larger than elephants.

Their confinement and imprisonment in obscenely small tanks is simply too much for them to bear. Since many countries have laws banning the importation of wild Orcas, some animal entertainment companies resort to hiding Orcas stolen from the open seas in even smaller than normal tanks until they have a need for them.

…Junior. Barely an adolescent at about 12 years of age, he was alone, lethargic, his spirit broken.

It’s clear people are hiding stuff. I mean they were hiding Junior, the other poor whale that was caught when, in 1989 or something, he ended up in Marine Land Ontario, and for five years was kept in a warehouse in a kiddy pool, and he just died a couple of months ago. He was never on any record. He’s a hidden whale, he’s another one, but he’s dead.

In the wild, Orcas normally spend a large part of their day underwater. In captivity, however, their tanks are so shallow that they’re often forced to spend as much as 50% of their time on the surface. This can cause sunburn and even the collapse of their massive dorsal fins because gravity continuously pulls on the fins when they’re not supported by water.

Know that they live in an extremely varied, textured, complex environment. The ocean is always moving, the ocean is always changing. And in captivity, they’re living in a concrete swimming pool. I mean no matter how you dress it up, it’s a concrete swimming pool. It never changes. It’s always the same. So it’s the same four walls, and there is nothing new inside them, day after day after day.

And so I think that it must be, as I said, terribly, terribly boring for them, and, boredom is stressful. It can in fact kill you, it’s so stressful. It can lead to depression, it can lead to high blood pressure, and it can lead to all sorts of physiological changes.

Dolphins also lead tortured lives and suffer enormously in tiny pools. These highly intelligent animals become so bored and frustrated in captivity that they often end up swimming in endless circles, with tremendous psychological and mental anguish being the result.

In addition, the water in their tanks may contain chemicals such as chlorine, which can cause serious health problems. Constant exposure to these harsh substances results in illnesses such as skin problems, eye infections and sometimes even blindness. The putrid, stagnant water in the tanks may also contribute to premature death.

On the issue of whether dolphins, for instance, can thrive and lead happy, healthy lives in marine parks, all of that evidence points to the answer being “no.” When you look at mortality rates, when you look at stress levels, when you look at what happens to them, where they come from when they go into marine parks and so forth, you see that this is no place for a large social mammal like a dolphin. So, there is no way that a marine park could ever mimic the natural lifestyle for a dolphin, a beluga whale, an Orca and so forth. And they don’t belong in captivity for these reasons.

Dolphins always look like they are happy. And that’s because of the configuration of their jaw. So even when you look at the most horrific circumstances that dolphins go through, which is capture or slaughter, they still have that grin on their face, and that tells you that that’s not signaling that they are happy, it’s just their facial structure. So when people go to marine parks and they see dolphins jumping around and doing tricks and looking like they are smiling, that’s a deception.

What can we as individuals do to end the appalling treatment of these kind beings?

The bottom line is the one thing that people can do to help animals who are held captive in zoos and aquaria is just stop patronizing them. Because every time you buy a ticket to a place like this, you really are supporting confinement of these animals, and in many cases, particularly outside the United States, you are supporting capture from the wild.

We applaud all those who are speaking out on behalf of these abused animals, who should be immediately freed and once again allowed to roam and play in the oceans. Next Tuesday on Part 2 of our program we’ll have more on the capture and imprisonment of our innocent marine mammal friends.

For more information on captive marine mammals, please visit:
Human Society International www.HSUS.org/hsi
Save Japan Dolphins SavetheJapanDolphins.org

Thank you for joining us on today’s Stop Animal Cruelty program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May all your days be filled with Heaven's grace.

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