Netherlands moves toward a ban on captive dolphin breeding

The Dutch government has proposed legislation to end the captive breeding of dolphins. Animal rights advocates hope this legislative step will encourage other nations to follow suit.

The Dutch government has announced plans to impose a breeding ban and phase-out policy for dolphins in captivity. Animal rights advocates hope this step will encourage other nations to follow suit. Presently, just one facility, Dolfinarium in Hardewijk, keeps 22 dolphins in tiny concrete tanks in the Netherlands. The government has stated that these animals will live out their lives at the marine park and dolphin shows will continue. However, no more dolphins will be bred. This makes them the last generation of dolphins to suffer for entertainment in the country. The government also instructed the park not to command dolphins to interact with humans. Canada, France, and Mexico have already banned cetacean captivity. Dolphins are highly intelligent and socially complex individuals. Bottlenose dolphins pass the mirror test for self-awareness. Some dolphins use tools, and they play games like tossing seaweed about. In their natural homes, dolphins swim up to 60 miles in a single day. They jump from the water, dive to depths of up to 3,000 feet, hunt for food, and engage in complex communication with friends and family. Marine parks deny them these natural behaviors. These intelligent individuals are forced to swim in circles with little to do, hand-fed dead fish by humans, and judged by how well they obey orders to perform. To continue displaying dolphins, amusement parks must maintain a steady stream of babies. Dolphin pods can contain up to 30 dolphins of different generations. Dolphins choose their own mates, but at many marine parks, they are used as breeding machines. This sometimes happens through forced artificial insemination. Some animals endure this process repeatedly, only for their babies to die or be shipped off to other parks. Not all animals trapped at marine parks or roadside aquariums were bred in tanks. Some were torn away from their ocean homes and families. Corky, the longest-held captive orca in the world, was forcibly torn from her mother and sold into the marine park industry in 1969. Today, she is trapped in a tiny tank at SeaWorld, swimming in endless circles. Merlin, a dolphin confined at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, was captured from the Gulf of Mexico in 1989 and has been forced to perform in shows ever since.

Read source: PETA