Making Sense of Dolphin Entertainment

Now that the summer holidays are on the horizon, people planning vacations should be careful about where they spend their vacations. If you're a person who loves animals and respects wildlife, it makes sense that a person should also be mindful of animals in captivity and stay away from places like Seaworld and Dolphin parks.
After watching The Cove, a movie about a group of activists/adventurers who set out to tell the world about the sad and secret treatment of dolphins at a cove in Taiji, Japan, I felt an urge to do my part by writing a piece about these beautiful creatures.
It is clearly wrong to imprison these intelligent marine mammals in a million dollar entertainment outfit designed to line the pockets of people who care little for animal welfare. Those who front outfits like Seaworld and other parks that showcase dolphins state that it is for the educational value of children and adults. Yet, the real value of showing the dolphins to the public is that dolphins make people money.
The filmmakers do a good job about showing how select dolphins are sold to entertainment parks for as much as $150,000 each; others who don't pass the mark are butchered and sold as meat. Some scenes in the movie are heart-renching, especially when the sounds of dolphins being butchered are heard, followed by an eerie sound of silence.
And yet the dolphins in the parks are not living a life of bliss. Despite their appearance, these dolphins must be forced to work for food, and life in a small, artificial pen that in no way duplicates their life in the real world. Dolphins are also separated from their families when they are cruelly wrenched from the sea for transport to a life of being in a sea circus.
It's time people around the world stop this terrible treatment of dolphins. One of the easiest steps is to boycott all Sea parks that operate dolphin entertainment and charge people a fee to "swim with dolphins."
Although we do not have the time or money to go to Japan to help stop the senseless killing and selling of these dolphins, we can do a large part by not going to these events. Eventually,  one hopes, these heartless outfits will lose money, close their complexes, and return these dolphins to the sea from which they belong.
For people who have yet to watch The Cove, it is highly recommended and so is the website, http://www.thecove.com/ which also provides information on how the average person can get involved in this crusade to stop the killing and selling of dolphins in Japan.
But on a global picture, we can also monitor our travel excursions and when travelling in a new place that offers dolphin entertainment, decline loudly.
Dolphins have had a long and interesting relationship with humans. They have been known to save swimmers from sharks and also have been known to encourage in co-operative human-dolphin fishing expeditions, dating from the pre-Roman era, thanks to accounts from the likes of the Pliny, the Elder.
Let's help stop the abuse, now!