So I have been getting a whole bunch of questions about what we can do to stop the slaughter in Japan ? What can we do to help save the ecology of our seas?
People in the know give us five things we can do:
1. Write to the Japanese embassy in your city – monthly, weekly or daily voicing your opinion on the slaughter
2. Spread the word
3. Volunteer on the ground
4. Donate to organizations that can be on the ground
5. Do NOT support the Captive industry
The last option seems to stir up a lot of emotion. Probably because most of us have been to a Dolphin show. Most of us have dreamt of going to the Bahamas and swimming with Captive Dolphins. We are the first to comment on our friends Facebook photos of them kissing a Dolphin in Atlantis in Dubai. We love Dolphins and want to swim with them, interact with them and enjoy them.
Surely it can’t be possible that these wonderful marine biologists and trainers are involved in one of the cruelest animal captive programs on the world and are directly involved in the killing of thousands of Dolphins every year in Taiji Japan.
Firstly let me show you how very involved they are:
Almost all trainers and organisations that keep Dolphins belong to IMATA. The International Marine Animal Trainers Association.
Their Mission statement:
“The International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association is dedicated to advancing the humane care and handling of marine animals by fostering communication between professionals that serve marine animal science through training, public display, research, husbandry, conservation, and education.”
You can find their VALUES here.
Below you will find two trainers from Russia visiting the Dolphin Base captive Facility in Taiji last week. They are there to facilitated the transfer of four Bottlenose Dolphins to Russia.
- Overseeing the Captives
- Its funny this slaughter thing yeah ?
- Hiding your Cap- Really ?
These pictures are courtesy of our Cove Guardians in Taiji. See his Cap, see the organization he belongs to. The Organization he proudly support.
They are 100% aware of what goes on in Taiji. They are aware of the slaughter and they support the Captive industry in Taiji. The Captive industry that has BEEN proven to fund the slaughter.
So much for being concerned for the Conservation of the species as their mission statement proudly tries to claim.
Here are a few places you can read up about the link between the Dolphin Slaughter and the Captive industry:
Facts about the drive hunt – Sea Shepherd
In Opposition to Dolphin Captivity – Animal Planet
To sum up how these two are linked. The Dolphin hunt has become more and more economically unsustainable. So between 4/5 years ago The Fisherman’s Union in Taiji started selling Captive Dolphins to help make the slaughter financially viable. without the sale of Live Dolphins the killers will not be able to afford to continue the slaughter.
Now here is where you might ask but what about Captive facilities that don’t and have never bought Dolphins from Taiji. Surely clumping them into the same group as those that do is wrong. Thats like saying because Blood Diamonds exist we should stop buying Diamonds.
Lets put CRUELTY aside for one moment and simply argue on the above.
The difference is Blood Diamonds are illegal and the industry has taken great lengths to STOP the blood diamond trade. The Diamond industry pays billions of dollars every year to try stop the selling and trading of diamond illegally obtained in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
The Captive Dolphin industry to the contrary has done NOTHING to try stop the slaughter in Taiji. As shown above they actually SUPPORT it.
Switzerland is the only country in the world that has a BAN on importing Dolphin and Whales.
In the United States there is a moratorium on taking dolphins from the wild , but up until recently, marine mammal parks in the States did take dolphins from the wild and from dolphin drive hunts. There are still dolphins who you can go see in these marine parks who were taken from the wild. And they also reserve the right, under some circumstances, to take again from U.S. waters in the future; it’s not illegal if there is any possibility left in the law.
South Africa has no such legislation. Yes the Dolphins in Ushaka Marine world are all born in captivity but there is nothing stopping another marine park from opening up and buying Wild Dolphin from Taiji.
The success of Ushaka marine parks here serves as a model for the rest of the world. And when the rest of the world tries to emulate us, it means that they’re going to take animals from the wild — in particular these drive hunts, which are some of the easiest ways that you can stock your pools with animals.
So Ushaka marine world and other successful marine parks have a responsibility to police the captivity industry and their colleagues. ‘WAZA, the World Association for Zoos and Aquariums, has done very little to do this. In fact the Taiji Whale Museum, which takes from the Taiji drives, is a member in good standing of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) and JAZA is a member of WAZA. So WAZA can’t be doing all that much to help with the situation.’ Dr. Lori Marino
If these organization were spending billions on trying to stop the drive hunt , and our only aim was to stop the hunt then I could be inclined to say good, lets try support them. This is not the case. Buying a ticket to a Dolphin show is growing the industry an industry that relies on Taiji. This industry runs and funds the drive hunt.
BUT I am most definitely not inclined to support them even if they did do the above simply BECAUSE these places are absolutely cruel, vile places. Dolphins and large marine mammals should never be kept in Captivity. In many of the other Blogs on this site you can find proof of this. Don’t take my word for it though. Do your own research.
I would recommend the following book:
Behind the dolphin Smile by Ric O’Barry
and the following Documentary:
SO the reality is that The Captive industry is not only a cruel cruel place but also the number one reason Taiji gets to kill thousands of Dolphins and small Whales every year. Support a facility and support the killing of Dolphins.
Brandon Botes
Mar 2, 2013 -
Grant you are doing amazing things and your fight against cruelty is a role model to all of us. However to stop supporting the “captive industry” as you put it is not the option we should be going with, as more of these organisations that have animals in captivity are doing far more good than anything else. They educate humans about the cruelty against animals aswell as show us the character and personality of these beautiful creatures which in turn gives us a feeling of love towards them. I agree that there are organisations that support taiji, which is not good. Most of these dolphins and whales around the world in marine parks are this that have need to be rehabilitated due to them being attack before from these cruel organisations. Lots of these organisations even release the dolphins and whales back into the wild and usually only keep the ones that won’t be able to survive if released back. We should be targeting the WAZA and JAZA organisations from the top and force them to qualify or clamp down the marine parks from around the world as to where they get their marine life from, so we can know which ones are doing good and which ones are purely there to make money. These marine parks should be graded as you would a hotel allowing them to always want to strive for better ratings, and the only way they can get them is by doing more good.
Grant Nash
Mar 2, 2013 -
Hey Brandon
Thanks for the comment. Please indulge me as I answer some of your points.
‘They educate humans about the cruelty against animals aswell as show us the character and personality of these beautiful creatures which in turn gives us a feeling of love towards them’
Please explain to me how you believe they educate us about Cruelty to animals when they themselves are perpetuating cruel behavior. For starters you don’t need live Dolphins to teach people about Dolphins in the same way as you don’t need live Dinosaurs to teach people about Dinosaurs. These animals are free swimming animals that swim about 40-50 miles a day in the ocean. In these parks they are put into tiny tanks. They are then forced to do unnatural tricks to get food. Im sure you aware that 70-80% of their food is given to them when they do tricks, they are not doing these tricks for fun they are doing them because they are starving. Because if they don’t do these tricks they are not fed. There is nothing natural about starving an animal and making them do tricks to get food. Im also sure you are aware that all these animals are on a strict diet of dead fish and medication. This medication includes vitamins, sunscreen tablets, antibiotics and anti-depressants. Why ? because these animals are depressed because they are in very stressful unnatural situations.How are you showing their personalities when they are drugged and forced to do tricks you would never see them do in the wild.
If you believe that these parks teach people to love dolphins please explain to me why The South of Japan has more than fifty different Dolphin parks, YET just around the corner they are killing thousands of these same Dolphins every year ? If it was about preservation and love of Dolphins surely these parks would inspire people to stand up against the slaughter of these dolphins, yet every year these Dolphins are slaughtered and no one in Japan says a thing.
‘Most of these dolphins and whales around the world in marine parks are this that have need to be rehabilitated due to them being attack before from these cruel organizations.’
This is a ridiculous notion that some parks have tried to propagate yet there is no proof what so ever that any marine park any where in the world has bought Dolphins from other parks because they have been treated badly. The rehabilitation process is also pretty ridiculous, when you know as well as I do that the only way to begin to rehabilitate Dolphins is to get them away from humans and to start feeding them live food. Not keep them in tanks doing tricks. Yes there are great rehabilitation centers, some which Ric O’Barry himself has started and runs very successfully. But these look very very different to the marine parks we go to and see these animals doing tricks begging for food. They are sea Pens where animals are forced to relearn their natural behaviors to survive in the ocean.
Yes to stop the slaughter we should definitely target WAZA and continue to put pressure on them.
To stop the cruelty we should stop propagating that its ever okay to force a Dolphin to live in a tiny pen, to medicate it and force it to jump through hoops to get its food. There is nothing educational or compassionate about this. You know as well as I do that this industry has nothing to do with rehab or education, but money , cruelty and more money.
Amber
Nov 7, 2013 -
Hi ya,
Just a point out of Ushaka. .. I believe the dolphin Gambit is actually wild caught..
And if they say their Dollis are all captive breed, wouldn’t they start to be threatened with inbreeding?
Jen
Mar 2, 2013 -
Brilliant blog as usual!!
you get the facts out there , answering loads of questions. Your blog is a great source of info for our Walk against Captivity” supporters/ followers.
Many thanks for the time & effort you put into writing… MUCH appreciated!
We all have to keep talking & sharing this info .
“We are all drops, but together we are a Tsunami!”
Will keep sharing on our Facebook page (https://facebook.com/WalkAgainstCaptivity)
(pls send me a pic with you wearing our WAC T-shirt! thx!)
Natasha Rough
Mar 2, 2013 -
Brandon, the dolphins have to perform tricks to get food -> can you not see that is wrong?
They do not have the required space they need to flourish, they live in what would be a bath tub for us..
it’s so wrong.
and all for education?
What exactly does one learn from watching starving animals perform tricks for food?
crikey, you’ll get more from a book.
Angie Raab
Mar 2, 2013 -
Brandon, I suggest you read Death in Sea World!
And watch Blackfish!
And this i also about former Marine park Trainers who got sick of the lies, the treatment of the animals and so on…
And the revaluate your opinion.
Nikki Botha
Mar 2, 2013 -
Hi Brandon
We get that so often. Captive facilities have very good marketing. They sell lies to an unsuspecting public and they do so by appealing to the good in people. Put “education” in any sentence you have a captive audience (pardon the pun).
This entire issue is about supply and demand. As long as they sell lies, there will be a demand; and as long as there a demand, there will be a supply. If the demand decreases, supply decreases; regardless of product (in this case, the “product” is a dolphin). That is logic at its simplest.
Next point we need to consider is the difference between captivity (zoos, dolphinariums, aquariums, etc) and sanctuary. What dolphinariums do NOT offer is sanctuary. I work in animal rehabilitation and I can PROMISE you that if we talk about sanctuary it means that these animals CANNOT live a normal life in the wild, but there is quality of life left. So we have two options: either we put to sleep, or we provide life long care in a safe environment which resembles their natural environment as close as possible (which, you have to agree, a tank and pool is not for a dolphin). Captive facilities however, don’t have “broken” animals who are given life long care. They have healthy animals which can live a fulfilling, perfectly natural and normal life in their natural environment as God intended it.No disagreement so far, right? This brings me to the educational value.
Which do you think offers more educational value (especially if you want to talk about abuse against animals)? On the one hand, you have healthy wild animals in an unnatural environment doing things on command (which they would never do in the wild) in return for food they will not eat in the wild (dolphins do not eat dead fish in the wild – they are taught to eat it on human command). On the other hand, you have animals who are in life long care because of – for example – the hand of man; they live in an environment which is as close to the real thing as you can get; AND they behave as naturally as God intended it as possible (depending on the physical capability of each individual animal).
My conclusion is that if I as an outsider had to look at the two scenarios, it would be a no brainer that I would see the sanctuary as having far more value to those who wish to learn more about animals; and it would touch me much more on a personal level seeing these animals in need (it’s a normal biological imperative ). It would most certainly teach me how NOT to treat animals; whereas the captive facility would make me think that all I am seeing is humans dominating another being which cannot fight back or have a say in the matter). And quite frankly, in this day and age, we don’t need to teach our kids anymore bullying thank you very much. Because that is exactly what bullying is defined as.
Despite that, if you (as in general, not you personally) are so concerned about the animals, then surely you would want what is best for them? If they had a voice and you had to ask them: where is home and would you like to go there?” I am convinced they would say they would want to go home. It’s instinct. A wild animal can NEVER EVER get rid of their wildness and that wildness is that raw instinct we as humans have lost so many eons ago.
But, if you are willing to sacrifice what is best for that animal in favour of human “education”, then you’re putting yourself first and then it has NOTHING to do with the animal anymore. Where is the educational value in that?
The bottom line is – and you KNOW this – wild animals belong in the wild. Moreover, dolphins belong in the ocean. Not in a tank, not in a pool, not in a bath tub. And as long as we buy in to it that they DO, we will never be able to save them.
And for God’s sake – who doesn’t want to rescue a dolphin?
Nikki Botha
Mar 2, 2013 -
(I hope that helped a little bit. If you have ANY questions, ask
)
Why shouldn’t I go swim with dolphins?!
Mar 2, 2013 -
[...] Please take the time to read the full article: http://grantnash.co.za/why-target-all-the-captive-industry/ [...]
louis Boshoff
Mar 6, 2013 -
Wow i. Am ashámed that i shared Brandon’s thoughts on the Subject….in a good way…or so i thought. Reading your comments Made me realise I was so decieved by the so called animal lovers. Infact I admired people giving all there time working with and pp”for the survival”. Of these magnificent animals. My eyes have opened. So even if u guys nailed Brandon….thanks to his reply I have seened the light. Count me in supporting your cause 100%
Grant Nash
Mar 7, 2013 -
Hey Louis. Thank you so much for the message. This is why I really really LOVE the fact that people are willing to comment and engage. I do strongly believe that THERE is no right or wrong way just a new/different way to see the world. I think BRANDON rocks for coming on here and wanting to talk about it
and I’m so glad that you have decided to do the same. Thank you. Together lets hope we can make a difference in a few of these amazing animals lives.
Janina
May 5, 2013 -
Hey Grant! Where can we see the film? Can’t we organize a SA screening?