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Big No No: the Dolphin show at Metrowalk, Pasig

I’m part of this married couple egroup and recently there have been a lot of posts about people wanting to watch the dolphin show. And I’ve been e-biting my tongue and been a sort of coward not saying anything, but heck here’s something to read and I think I’ll drop do an egroup post about this as well…

Liza has posts on the Dolphin Show here and here.

The official media release:

9 December 2007
Animal Welfare Groups Hound Dolphin Show
Same cruel show. Different venue.

The Movers and Shakers, Inc., organizers of the “Wonderful World of Dolphins” at the Mall of Asia last year, are at it again with their traveling dolphin show now at a new venue — Metrowalk in Pasig.

Picketed last year by environment and animal welfare groups, Movers &Shakers made the activists believe that they understood the issues surrounding traveling dolphin shows.

“We are extremely disappointed that Movers and Shakers is doing the same cruel show again. We thought that they were sincere when they talked to us last year about discontinuing this event,“ says Anna Cabrera, Program
Director for the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).

“However, we are glad that the SM Group of Companies has kept its promise of not supporting travelling Dolphin shows. This just shows that more and more companies and mall owners are being enlightened about the inherent cruelty
of such shows, “ adds Cabrera.

Traveling dolphin shows, compared to larger ocean parks, are smaller and are actually temporary facilities where marine mammals, usually dolphins and sea lions, perform for a time after which they are moved to their next show location. The repeated transport of dolphins and other aquatic animals are particularly stressful as these animals have to be immobilized for the entire duration of the travel.

The inferior facilities of traveling shows— small, shallow pools, inappropriate water treatment methods and the stress of the repeated transport of the animals have actually moved countries like the United States to ban this type of show. Many other countries in Europe like the United Kingdom have also banned such shows. Latin American countries such as Brazil and Nicaragua have stopped the commercial showing of dolphins and Australia and New Zealand have also prohibited such entertainment in their territories.

“Once again, the ignorance of our government officials regarding animal welfare and the greed of commercial outfits like Movers and Shakers, has made it possible for this inhumane and already outmoded form of entertainment to be present in the Philippines. It is up to the enlightened citizenry to show that we will not tolerate animal cruelty. We urge all
animal loving Filipinos, specially those who really care for dolphins, not to watch this show,” says Trixie Concepcion, Coordinator for the Earth Island Institute-Philippines (EII-Phils).

Concepcion adds: “Our protest comes at a very opportune time as it is a day before the International Human Rights Day. We also want to enlighten everyone that animals also have rights not to be subjected to any cruel treatment, just like humans.”

To show the cruel side of such traveling dolphin shows, both EII and PAWS held a mock dolphin show depicting how dolphins are starved in order to obey their trainers and how they go blind after years of swimming in chlorinated
water.

Aliya Parcs, PAWS Celebrity Volunteer who came with her dog Holiday joined the protest rally and comments : “Its shocking to learn how dolphins are treated in such shows. It’s wrong to imprison animals and force them to
continuously do tricks and other actions which they would not normally do in their natural environment just so the organizers can make money.”

Volunteers also staged a DIE-IN depicting how parent Dolphins are killed in Japanese drive fisheries while trying to protect their young who are forcibly taken from their families. Young Dolphins are those that are sold to Marine Parks and travelling Dolphin show because they are the ones that are considered “trainable”.

Toni Rose Gayda, another PAWS Celebrity Volunteer adds : “As a part of the entertainment industry myself, I do hope that the Philippines will join the ranks of the countries that have already banned the use of marine mammals in
entertainment.”

For more information contact:
Trixie Concepcion, EII-Phils / Anna Cabrera, PAWS

And this is really interesting:

part of an email to the paws egroup from Ted of On Loving Animals:

The show managers made a grab at legitimacy by declaring that they received a permit from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This is adepartment of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) basedin Nairobi. My wife works for the United Nations in New York,and we discussed this matter. I soon confirmed what I had suspected.That is, CITES isn’t an animal welfare organization but a trade organization.What does that mean? Well, CITES’ main concern is to regulate the trade involving endangered species. Their job is to keep the commercial trade in endangered species ( including flora) in check, making sure that the trading in animals and plants will not lead to their extinction. There is ongoing trade between their member countries. Indonesia and the Philippines are members of CITES.

However, it is clear from their website that CITES allows the trade of fur and skin as long as it precludes extinction. That’s
definitely not an animal welfare organization. The show at Metrowalk has four animals, I believe, and none of them are on the endangered species list. So, this is like going to the baker for your plumbing woes.

CITES is not in the business of checking on the care and welfare of captive performing animals at all. So, the so-called permit granted to the show’s managers ( if there really is such a thing ) is meaningless. I think it using a high falutin name in an attempt to legitimize themselves. They are putting up a smokescreen in hopes that they could confuse the opponent.

http://www.cites.org/index.html