On 11 December Advocating Wild wrote to BGH Capital P/L, the incoming owners of Sea World on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Our letter congratulated the company on its acquisition of Village Roadshow Ltd, an Australian institution that has owned the park for decades, in the hopes that it will breathe a new life and model into the business that continues the archaic practice of keeping animals for human entertainment.
Our letter focused on urging the private equity firm to phase out the keeping of dolphins at the entertainment park by putting an end to the breeding of these species in Australia once and for all.
Sea World Gold Coast is one of only two facilities that continues to keep dolphins in pens and use them to provide entertainment for paying customers in Australia.
Dolphin Marine Conservation Park in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales has already pledged they will no longer breed these animals and is currently assessing the potential to retire its dolphin stock to a Sea Pen. In addition that state is looking to ban keeping cetaceans in captivity permanently.
Our letter points out to BGH founders Robin Bishop, Ben Gray and Simon Harle that Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus, Tursiops aduncas) are not listed as vulnerable, threatened or endangered and no dolphin bred at Sea World is able to be released to the wild, therefore breeding of these species at the park does not contribute to their conservation in nature.
We also noted that the Australian public and international tourists to the park are seeking entertainment at Sea World — not education. This is cleary demonstrated by the companies recent and continuing revamp direction, where investment is being made into ride precinct developments and night time events; not animal exhibits, animal welfare or genuine public education.
Advocating Wild has asked BGH Capital to consider the ongoing expense and problems when keeping these species captive, particularly in light of the Covid Pandemic and the sustainability of captive breeding, the unethical practice of using rescued dolphins for breeding, performance and public interactions and pledge to end the breeding of dolphins in Australia once and for all.
~
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors. Disclaimer: Advocating Wild are a small group of independents who receive no funding and do not collect donations. Our blogs are opinion pieces unless otherwise stated and the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of mentioned organisations. All information we provide is accurate and true to the best of our knowledge, however there may be omissions, errors or mistakes. Our blogs are for informational and awareness raising purposes only and we are not professional marine mammal experts. Advocating Wild reserves the right to change the focus or content of our blogs at any time. All images contained in this blog where stated have been used or created with permission.This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorised by the copyright owner. Credit is given to the author of quotes, photos and other related materials. We source these materials from various public internet sites, in an effort to advance understanding of animal rights issues. We believe the use of materials on this site constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material and is distributed on this site without profit. If you wish to use any copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain expressed permission from the copyright owner. If you are the owner of any copyrighted material and believe the use of any such material does not constitute “fair use”, please contact us, so we can make proper corrections, and ultimately, take it off the post if requested and or if proven necessary.The owner of this page, its administrators, or representatives will not be held personally responsible, nor liable for any damages, actual or consequential, for any posts by third parties which may violate any law. All quotes obtained directly or through our sources and provided for our use.
Commentaires