In a stunning victory for dolphins and animal welfare activists everywhere the permission to capture 12 dolphins from the wild every year in Antigua has been revoked.
On February 23rd, 2004 in a statement issued by the Secretary of the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda, it was confirmed “that the permission granted to Mr. John Mezzanotte to capture twelve (12) dolphins annually from Antigua waters is herby revoked.” The government of Antigua is to be commended for taking this bold step against animal cruelty.
In what was a controversial and highly publicized “dolphin case” and legal battle, Antigua and Barbuda Independent Tourism Promotion Corporation (ABITPC) has claimed this as a major victory for the dolphin populations off Antigua. And so they should.
In The Bahamas, the Government took a giant step backwards last year when they agreed to allow Atlantis to operate a dolphin facility in the latest phase of their development. To date the public has not been informed of how many dolphins would be captured from the wild or brought into the Bahamas from other dolphin facilities.
When questioned about allowing Atlantis to get dolphins, Prime Minister Christie replied that “everyone in the Caribbean was doing it and that we had to do it to keep up with the competition.” To thousands of tourist who put animal welfare first Antigua has just jumped in front of the competition.
Our tourism product is far more sophisticated and complex than this shockingly na�ve and simplistic objection suggests. If one was to grant this statement credence, then as the # 1 tourism destination in this part of the world, instead of being leaders in sustainable development and against cruelty to animals, apparently The Bahamas would rather follow the long and abusive “well beaten path” of ignorance that these dolphin facilities perpetuate.
It is a national shame and disgrace that we as a people continue to allow visionless leaders to propagate the moral depravity that allowed slavery to exist in the human race – into the animal kingdom, once again in the name of economic gain for the privileged few. As Regional leaders in Tourism we should be developing a product based on environmental awareness and protection that can be proudly showcased to the world, not one that creates and exploits the misery of other intelligent living creatures for our guests’ frivolous and ignorant pleasure and the economic gain of others.
Dolphins are intelligent air breathing mammals just like us. They live in highly structured social groups much like humans; they give birth to live young, mothers nurse their babies for up to 3 years, aunts and juveniles baby sit while mothers feed. Males protect the pod. They support sick members of their pod at the surface so they don’t drown. Dolphins can swim up to fifty miles every day. They routinely make choices about their daily lives. They eat a variety of foods. Each has their own “signature” whistle which is used for communication contact and reunion between individuals. They live long lives (50+ years) and they have extended childhoods, close friendships and live in mixed aged and multigenerational groups. They also display the capacity to learn over their life span.
When humans abduct them from their natural environment, they are disrupting that structure. This abduction may separate nursing mothers from their calves forever possibly resulting in the baby’s death, This forced separation also interrupts socializing, breeding and feeding patterns.
In captivity, these animals are forced to perform monotonous “tricks” day after day.all day for the “entertainment” of ignorant human beings, who are duped by the slave masters who keep these creatures that have committed no crime imprisoned for life.
In human society a human must commit a heinous crime to be imprisoned for life – for all other species being ‘different’ is sufficient reason to be locked up for life. These animals have no debt to pay to society! They also have a right to exist-naturally. They are simply being exploited!
As if imprisonment for life is not enough, they are forced to swim in their own faeces and urine day in day out in small shallow enclosures and are bombarded by noise and water pollution from boats. They are fed a ‘wonderful’ diet of dead fish filled with antibiotics and vitamins to keep them “healthy” instead of their normal diet of various live fish which they hunt for in the wild. These captive dolphins are also harassed by people touching kissing and petting them – all day, everyday – seven days a week.
To understand a little of how these dolphins must feel in captivity, we need to imagine never seeing our children, our sisters, brothers, mothers or fathers again. We need to imagine never being able to touch, hold, or tell them how much we love them. Again. Ever. This is the life that a few greedy humans and the ignorant masses who patronize these facilities have chosen for these animals.
Surely to continue to exploit these animals for personal gain sends a deep and disturbing message to our children that these are the values that we uphold, that we have no ethical or moral obligation to other species, that it is perfectly acceptable to abuse and use wildlife for the good old dollar.
I sincerely hope that the show of progressive thinking and leadership from Antigua inspires the Bahamas government to rethink their position on allowing Atlantis to have a dolphin facility. While the Government is at it, they should revoke the licenses of the existing facilities in The Bahamas that perpetuate the mind numbing, constant cruelty to these magnificent animals, and force them to rehabilitate and return them to the wild. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures “
Those who give permission for this cruel practice, and those who continue to imprison these highly intelligent mammals should hang their heads in shame. Slavery is alive and well in The Bahamas.
By Sam Duncombe
reEarth
