by Tom C.
Star of “The Cove” Movie Says New Video Shows Dolphin Abuse
Ric O’Barry was a dolphin trainer for many years. In fact he was a trainer on the popular TV series Flipper. However, Ric has become a dolphin activist in recent times.
In the Academy Award winning movie The Cove, Ric explains the tragic and very personal story about one of the Flipper dolphins. Ric tells the story of Flipper dying in his arms by suicide. At that moment Ric knew dolphins are free roaming creatures. To cage them is cruel and unusual punishment. Ric has been a dolphin activist ever since.
If you have not seen the movie, The Cove, I highly suggest you do so. Click here to visit the movie website.
However, more recent news has surfaced along with a video. Ric was sent startling footage of a dolphin, a species known as the false killer whale, that shows the animal suddenly leaping out of a tank during a July 4 marine show at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, in southwestern Japan.
Ric says the video shows a dolphin under stress. In a telephone interview with the Associated Press Ric says “The habitat of that false killer whale is so unnatural it leaped out in desperation. It wanted to end it. Why does a person jump out of a building?”
Ric further stated “dolphins are used to roaming for many miles a day, not swimming in a circle and doing flips at shows. Sound is the most important sense for dolphins. So keeping them in a concrete box is cruel, bombarding the animal with strange sounds and depriving a key sensory skill”
“It proves that captivity doesn’t work,” he said of the video.
“They are free-ranging creatures with a very large brain. They’re self aware and putting them in a small tank in a stadium setting is abusive.”
Ric said many other animals, including snakes, tend to get zoo cages that look more like their natural habitat than do dolphins.
“Release all of them and find a cruelty-free way of making a living,” he said.
Okinawa Video:
