Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I liked how Disney brought in Jane Gooddall to give advice on how to do Animal kingdom in a kinder to animals ways and she speaks about how these things do raise awareness and that there are ways to do it that are better for the animals, too.

Keep telling yourself that. It’s still a zoo, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

You do-gooders ruined everything. I miss the good old days when people were people and animals were animals.

Dp. Do you miss slavery too and when when women were pregnant and in the kitchen?

Anonymous wrote:The Azores is known for doing ecologically conscious dolphin and whale tours. You get in a small boat and drive out to where the dolphins are hanging out. You can "swim" with them in the wild but only if they want to be near you. You're not supposed to even touch them, let alone ride on them.

It was pretty cool just to be in the water with them coming up to you to see what you're all about. They're very curious. Obviously if the dolphins are not in the mood, they are free to swim away.

+ 1

If your heart is set on swimming with dolphins, go to the Azores and do it in the wild.

Anonymous wrote:This is not true of all dolphin swim places. Come on.

Np. But ask yourself this. Why do humans think they get the right to interact with any wild animal?

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Anonymous wrote:I am completely anti any 'swim with the dolphins' or 'ride the elephant' type exploitive tourist thing however your info is wrong. Animals that bring in $$ are treated pretty terribly in most parts of the world.

How about camels? One of my bucket list items is to ride a camel in the Sahara in Morocco.

Aren't camels like horses? They're domesticated.

+ 1

If it's ok to ride a horse, it is ok to ride a camel.

Anonymous wrote:I liked how Disney brought in Jane Gooddall to give advice on how to do Animal kingdom in a kinder to animals ways and she speaks about how these things do raise awareness and that there are ways to do it that are better for the animals, too.

Keep telling yourself that. It’s still a zoo, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

You do-gooders ruined everything. I miss the good old days when people were people and animals were animals.

The Azores is known for doing ecologically conscious dolphin and whale tours. You get in a small boat and drive out to where the dolphins are hanging out. You can "swim" with them in the wild but only if they want to be near you. You're not supposed to even touch them, let alone ride on them.

It was pretty cool just to be in the water with them coming up to you to see what you're all about. They're very curious. Obviously if the dolphins are not in the mood, they are free to swim away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am completely anti any 'swim with the dolphins' or 'ride the elephant' type exploitive tourist thing however your info is wrong. Animals that bring in $$ are treated pretty terribly in most parts of the world.

How about camels? One of my bucket list items is to ride a camel in the Sahara in Morocco.

Aren't camels like horses? They're domesticated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am completely anti any 'swim with the dolphins' or 'ride the elephant' type exploitive tourist thing however your info is wrong. Animals that bring in $$ are treated pretty terribly in most parts of the world.

How about camels? One of my bucket list items is to ride a camel in the Sahara in Morocco.

Probably also not good though you might be able to find some place better than others.
I liked how Disney brought in Jane Gooddall to give advice on how to do Animal kingdom in a kinder to animals ways and she speaks about how these things do raise awareness and that there are ways to do it that are better for the animals, too.

Anonymous wrote:I am completely anti any 'swim with the dolphins' or 'ride the elephant' type exploitive tourist thing however your info is wrong. Animals that bring in $$ are treated pretty terribly in most parts of the world.

How about camels? One of my bucket list items is to ride a camel in the Sahara in Morocco.

Anonymous wrote:All of the dolphins at Atlantis were orphaned/homeless from Hurricane Katrina. They have an enormous beautiful lagoon.

I just asked The Dolphin Project about Atlantis and these dolphins from Hurricane Katrina. Here is their direct reply to me:

“The dolphins that are claimed to have been rescued from Hurricane Katrina were simply moved to their facility after the dolphinarium they were previously at abandoned them during the hurricane. Atlantis Resort’s other facility in Dubai also purchased dolphins from the very cruel dolphin trafficking industry in the Solomon Islands ?.”



So they may have “rescued” them Katrina, but they continue to exploit them for profit. Doesn’t matter how beautiful their lagoon is.

Atlantis Dubai paid for stolen dolphins from the Solomon Islands.

Pay over a hundred bucks a piece to pet a dolphin? That’s enough of a deterrent for me!

I just found out who Paul Nicklen is via this post and it turns out like all my IG friends follow him. Who knew! Ha.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I did a dolphin encounter at blue lagoon in the Bahamas with my kids. We didn’t ride the dolphins, but we interacted with them. The dolphin was a mother who would occasionally swim away from the instructor to nudge her baby back to the area whenever he swam off. The instructor would explain that her mama duties come first, and assured us that she would be back once she got her little one back to the area.

It’s a conservation sanctuary. It was education based. I am confident they didn’t steal and kill dolphins. They were breeding them and they seemed well cared for in huge open lagoons.

So how, exactly, did they get the mother? And train her?

She could easily be a rescue that after they rehabbed her she still couldn't survive on her own in the wild.

Maybe they rescued?

Maybe they changed the way they do business with a conservation approach?

Point is: I didn’t ride a dolphin; I learned about them, paid to support the education and conservation effort, and got to be very close (standing in chest deep water), stroke the dolphin, etc.

It’s not exactly about riding a dolphin. You had a personal encounter with the dolphin where the dolphin has been trained to perform. That place is a marine park claiming to be a conservation dolphin sanctuary. Those are the places The Dolphin Project is fighting against.

Lots of dogs are trained to work or perform. That doesn’t make them mistreated.

The documentaries “Blackfish”, “The Cove” and “Blood Dolphin$” show that keeping dolphins and orcas in captivity is unethical and cruel. Dolphins and orcas are ripped them from their families that they would normally grow up with. They are deprived them of the freedom of the open ocean and instead confined to small, concrete tanks to perform tricks for dead fish.

No matter how sophisticated the enclosure, no man made facility can ever hope to replicate the wild world of dolphins. If they cannot be released to the wild, they shouldn't have to interact with humans for these "encounters" to earn their care if the the facility were a true animal sanctuary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I did a dolphin encounter at blue lagoon in the Bahamas with my kids. We didn’t ride the dolphins, but we interacted with them. The dolphin was a mother who would occasionally swim away from the instructor to nudge her baby back to the area whenever he swam off. The instructor would explain that her mama duties come first, and assured us that she would be back once she got her little one back to the area.

It’s a conservation sanctuary. It was education based. I am confident they didn’t steal and kill dolphins. They were breeding them and they seemed well cared for in huge open lagoons.

So how, exactly, did they get the mother? And train her?

She could easily be a rescue that after they rehabbed her she still couldn't survive on her own in the wild.

Maybe they rescued?

Maybe they changed the way they do business with a conservation approach?

Point is: I didn’t ride a dolphin; I learned about them, paid to support the education and conservation effort, and got to be very close (standing in chest deep water), stroke the dolphin, etc.

It’s not exactly about riding a dolphin. You had a personal encounter with the dolphin where the dolphin has been trained to perform. That place is a marine park claiming to be a conservation dolphin sanctuary. Those are the places The Dolphin Project is fighting against.

Lots of dogs are trained to work or perform. That doesn’t make them mistreated.

Dogs are companion animals. Dolphins are wild creatures that live in pods in the ocean -- not pet companion animals. You really cannot see the difference? Human contact with dolphins should be random acts of joy for humans -- like the snorkelers or kayakers mentioned above.