SHOULD IT BE ILLEGAL TO SWIM WITH DOLPHINS?
Dolphins are one the smartest mammals in the whole animal world. It was scientifically proven that they have a very high IQ in comparison with other animals and that they can experience similar feelings as humans. There are many touristic places that feature dolphins as one of the main attraction. Swimming with dolphins is a very trendy and popular thing to do while being in these locations.
But lately many animal protection associations requested for this practice to be banned because they consider that it harms the dolphins. This caused a huge controversy regarding the well-being of this amazing animals. We have listed some of the main arguments of this topic to better understand the subject and to choose the best approach.
Many places that feature swimming with dolphins have very strict rule regarding the correct behavior while interacting with these animals. You are banned from feeding, harassing or hitting them. This is respected in some of the places, but we see in the press that there are many scandals regarding the poor behavior some tourists have. And we see that many places that provide this activity take no measure because they are afraid that they will love tourists. Many tropical areas already banned swimming with dolphins because they believe that it is better to prevent a bad incident from happening.
Dolphins are very intelligent animals and they feel similar emotions with us. Many animal activists want to ban swimming with dolphins exactly because of this. There are places like aquariums that keep these mammals locked to attract tourists with this unique experience. The problem with this practice is that dolphins require a very large place to swim to remain healthy.
Many aquariums don't provide this and they "overwork" these mammals. This is another issue with this practice. If you look at the program they provide for this activity you will see that these animals sometimes "work" for more than 8 hours a day. Legally, a human is not allowed to work more than that because of health reasons. Animal activists consider that this activity stresses the animals so bad that they become sick. And when this happens, they are sometimes left to die because there are not many vets that know how to treat dolphins.
Another reason to ban this activity is from health concerns. Dolphins can carry many water-borne diseases that are very easy to be transmitted to humans. Many touristic agencies won't tell you about this to attract more tourists. Swimming with dolphins can be dangerous for us too. There were many cases of people getting infected with tropical diseases after swimming with dolphins. There are many countries that banned this activity because of this.
More and more people consider and think that dolphins should be left alone and be observed and left in their natural habitat. Using them for our entertainment is not a responsible or fair and wise decision.