Photo: WDCS
	HSUS article / WDCS article

Crowds of people gather noisily around a shallow pool and dangle food over the water's surface as countless dolphins jockey for the best position. This is a scene played out hour after hour, day after day at dolphin petting pools around the world. The dolphins have no refuge from the clamoring crowds and virtually no supervision or protection from the sometimes unruly visitors. This is the subject of a new joint report issued by WSPA member societies, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). This report calls upon the U.S. government to ban all shallow water dolphin interactions, known as "petting pools," and urges park visitors to avoid participating in these spectacles.

Dolphin petting pools allow marine park visitors to touch, pet and feed captive dolphins for a fee, with a minimal amount of supervision, thus creating a potentially hazardous situation for the dolphins and the people who want to get close to them. "Biting the Hand that Feeds: The Case Against Dolphin Petting Pools" reveals evidence gathered in over one hundred hours of observations at Sea World's petting pools in Florida, California, Texas and Ohio.

"Adequate supervision of the public by marine park staff at the pools is impossible," said Cathy Williamson, WDCS's Captivity Campaigner. "Items like paper fish containers, sunglasses and coins have been seen tossed or dropped into the pool. Each of these has the potential to cause gastrointestinal blockage, poisoning, or even death if ingested by the dolphins."

The study revealed countless dolphins living in unsafe, unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. Due to the lack of supervised feeding and inconsistent diets, many of the dolphins exhibited signs of obesity and aggressively pursued the fish being handed out to them, while others had visible signs of injury and exposed wounds.

Marine park visitors also risk potential injury and exposure to disease and bacteria from their up close encounters with the dolphins. As the dolphins compete for food and interact with each other, they may accidentally bump or bite park visitors. Unaware of the dangers they face, investigators frequently witnessed parents holding their young children out over the pools so that they could touch the dolphins. One such child was hit in the face by a passing dolphin.

Currently there is no government oversight or regulation of dolphin petting pools, a fact that increases the sense of urgency concerning the release of the HSUS/WDCS report. WSPA wholeheartedly supports the efforts of HSUS and WDCS and adds its voice to the cry to close dolphin petting pools, thereby protecting dolphins and their human visitors.

Click on the following links if you would like to learn more about dolphin petting pools or read the complete text of the HSUS and WDCS report.