First produced in 1995, the 5th edition of ‘The Case Against Marine Mammals In Captivity”, has now been released.
A joint production by Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and World Animal Protection (WAP) the report is an excellent resource to learn more about the various arguments against holding marine mammals for public display in zoos, aquaria, and marine theme parks.
A great deal has happened in this area in the past decade since the 4th edition was published and this latest report has several new chapters covering research, events and advances that offer additional support for the argument of why marine mammals, especially the larger, wide-ranging predators such as whales, dolphins, and polar bears, simply do not belong in captivity.
Dr Naomi Rose, the report’s lead author and AWI’s marine mammal scientist (also consultant to Dolphinaria-Free Europe) sums this up perfectly when stating “there is no way for them to thrive in captivity, we cannot give them what they need in captivity when what they need is the complex ocean environment.”