_"...The treatment of dolphins is another appalling example of animal cruelty. Activities offered in many tourist venues include swimming with them, interacting with them by touching or feeding them, using them as props for souvenir photographs and selfies, which causes them immense distress, and so-called beaching, the horrible practice where they are trained to propel themselves out of the water on to a stage—a demeaning act that often ends in severe injury to the animal. To prepare them for all this, these highly intelligent creatures are subjected to coercive control, deprived of food to make them respond to training, and kept in confined, featureless tanks that are 200,000 times smaller than their natural home range..."_

The level of ignorance in this statement is astounding. I'm not aware of any of these situations regarding dolphins in human care causing "immense distress". What actual evidence do they have to support such a statement particularly the one regarding animals being trained to breach. Some bottle nosed dolphins actually do this in the wild when hunting for fish and video of this behavior has been shown on various wildlife programmes.  In Holland (many years ago) I remember visiting one facility where the dolphins used to come out and breach and play on the side of the pool before the actual show. The food deprivation trope is often used but there's no evidence support this in a property run establishment. These animals are on public display and if they were food deprived they'd be underweight and this would be very easy to observe when compared to their wild counterparts.

_"...The Bill also has the powerful backing of many of the charities involved in this field of work, among them Save the Asian Elephants, the RSPCA, World Animal Protection and Four Paws UK. I am particularly indebted to Save the Asian Elephants for the comprehensive briefing it has provided to me and others, as indeed I am to our Library for its background document. I am also very grateful to officials at Defra, who have been generous in their time and expertise working on this Bill..."_

It's funny I've just recently made some comments on World Animal Protection's Facebook page. Are these people promoting this bill in Parliament not aware of the Dolphinaria Review that was commissioned by DEFRA in the mid 1980s.

 

https://hakaimagazine.com/news/salish-sea-killer-whales-have-a-surprising-new-way-of-hunting/