The Bulgarian town where I now live, like most cities of its size (pop. 356,852), has plenty to do. There are concerts, plays, tons of restaurants and cafes, an opera house, a zoo, a dolphinarium... I made plans to take advantage of all of this while I'm here and I was especially excited to visit the dolphinarium since I have never seen a dolphin show before.
Then I watched The Cove last night which is a documentary about the constant mass slaughtering of dolphins in Japan for our entertainment. I was disgusted that I had previously been excited to watch the dolphin show. I was ignorant in believing these trained dolphins to be well cared for and happy when in fact they are constantly dying prematurely due to the stressful living conditions and they are performing mainly because they won't be fed otherwise. For every one dolphin that makes it into a show, hundreds or thousands are needlessly killed and even though their meat contains poisonous amounts of mercury, it is sent around Asia for human consumption.
Last year while spending 4th of July in Coronado, I got to witness some dolphins cruising back and forth across the beach, flipping, diving, and playing. It was beautiful. I swam out as far as I could in the freezing Pacific to get a better look. I now know this is surely the best way to see these amazing creatures, in their natural environment. They'll still put on a show, a free show, but it will be of their own will to entertain and will not be at the expense of thousands of their own kind.
(This is the best picture I could get of one of the dolphins)
Check out these sites for more information about the movie and the actions being taken to put an end to this brutal industry:
http://www.thecovemovie.com
http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
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