Dolphins look in the mirror; in the dolphin pool, human nature is reflected
Who looks in a mirror? Guppies? Mice? Does a one-year-old baby understand? Only when a creature can crawl past a mirror and recognize that the reflection is itself does it truly understand mirror-gazing. Human babies develop this ability at about age two; although there are more than 50,000 species of vertebrates, only a handful possess self-awareness. On land, primates such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans will look at themselves in a mirror. Can you believe that dolphins do too?
Image source: Dolphin Family fan page
Dolphins have an intelligent mind and a simple way of life. They need no houses, clothing or other external material things; as long as they can avoid the negative influence of humans, they should be able to live freely and peacefully in the sea. Return to the starting point of the matter: why put dolphins in captivity? Who profits? The original motive for keeping whales and dolphins captive is to use them as a money tree. To cut costs, animal and employee welfare are sacrificed, and only capitalists profit. But people have the ability to choose to leave, while dolphins in a pool absolutely cannot. The collapse of capitalism has not yet arrived, but the possibility and feasibility of banning the killing and captive breeding of whales and dolphins already exist, and many countries around the world have already achieved this. For example, the UK had dolphinariums starting in 1963, and they later grew to 30 venues, but because of public attitudes, scientific research and legislative efforts, by 1993 it had closed its last dolphinarium (Note 5). Does the UK have no entertainment because it has no dolphinariums? Without dolphinariums, can it not provide whale- and dolphin-related education? Without seeing a dolphin show, can people not know whales and dolphins? History makes people wiser. Thanks to the shared experience of captivity and the whales and dolphins that were sacrificed, humans have finally been taught that captivity is unnecessary and that keeping dolphins locked up does no good to the human heart. Let go of the greed we clutch so tightly, and the world will be better.
Note 1 https://youtu.be/6M92OA-_5-Y (Inside the animal mind, BBC)
Note 2 https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2014/05/14/a-national-aquarium-without-dolphins/
(Baltimore Brew, 2014.5.14)
Note 3 http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20150607/19175455 (Hong Kong Apple Daily 2015.6.7)
Note 4 http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-half-of-live-dolphins-caught-in-japan-exported-despite-hunt-outcry-report-2015-6 (Business Insider, 2015.6.6 )
Note 5 http://www.marineanimalwelfare.com/Dolphinaria/UK%20Dolphinaria.htm