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IS FlIPPER SAD?
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Ashley knows whereof she speaks
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Hays introduced his daughter Ashley Englehart as our speaker for the morning. Her goal for the presentation was to provide a perspective concerning animals in zoos and parks. She estimates there are approximately 355 zoos and aquariums in the U.S. There are no statistics on worldwide estimates. The exhibits reach varying ages, demographics and cultures. Their primary focus is on accessibility and education.
During the course of her career thus far, Ashley has worked with birds, sharks, sea lions and especially dolphins. She asked if we had seen the movie The Cove (won an academy award) - about Japanese dolphin hunts. Only two responded that they had.
Many animal activists use this movie to present a negative view of zoos and parks and the impact of captivity on these animals. The Cove claims that marine parks have promoted dolphin slaughter since the 1980's. The truth is this practice began in 1606. Less than 1% of the animals caught are sent to parks from Japan and no animals have left Japan since 1989. This is due to successful breeding programs elsewhere in the world.
Claim #2: Parks and zoos starve animals to get them to do tricks...but these are not tricks, rather they are normal animal behaviors. Training is based on positive reinforcement - which can be food, toys and attention. Some love the attention so much that they want to do more. If they don't respond trainers will step away for a break and then observe the situation to determine what may be impacting them. At the end of the day, they get fed the rest of their food whether or not they performed as hoped.
Claim #3: Animal lifespan is greatly reduced; TRUTH: dolphins live in the wild 25-30 years max. Dolphins in human care live into their 40's and 50's. Nellie is 60!!
Bad facilities do exist. There is a traveling facility in Indonesia that has dolphins who jump through flaming hoops. They get their dolphins from fishermen directly (which may or may not be legal). Traveling circuses such as this are being shut down. There is an older facility in Florida being asked to update; not bad, just a facility that needs to be brought up to current standards
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Ashley has our undivided attention
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The training community supports activists who go after substandard facilities. There is an organized Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums that actively supports good practices. Out of this comes GOOD things in research. We have learned a lot about dolphins, e.g. how they can mimic behaviors, understanding their visual acuity and of course, meaningful medical research results. For the general public, people can see animals up close and personal they would never see otherwise. They are encouraged and inspired to save the animals in the wild - "NOW I HAVE SEEN IT SO I WANT TO PROTECT IT").
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Is this called bonding, Ashley?
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We have trained dolphins to accept sonograms, hydration tubes and artificial insemination, which allows cross breeding between facilities without having to move the animals. They do get their teeth brushed.
Zoo babies are bred to save a species. They may be released into the wild or not. Bonding with trainers improves animal life. Dolphin first time moms are highly stressed, so trainer bonding can help Mom with the birth and acceptance of the newborn calf.
Q&A
- Recent death of a novice handler by a lion in Fresno? They are not accredited; she was an intern and she shouldn't have been where she was.
- Dawn (Ashley's friend) was killed by a killer whale? She chose to lie down next to him when he was out of the water and then he grabbed her. She made a mistake, and, unfortunately, it turned out badly.
- How did Ashley get into this line of work? She was studying journalism and decided that it wasn't for her; looked at her passion - animals and the ocean. Joined trainers' organizations early on and received internships.
- Funding for activist organizations? Use of old statistics and misleading information includes celebrities to promote negative information. Training organizations made mistakes early on by remaining silent, but now are starting to tell their own story.
- Where can we go to see dolphins? Food source is available and bay is healthy so dolphins are back!!
Ashley is currently looking at dolphin training opportunities in South America and Asia. In the meantime she is training dogs. Steve Ware said she is doing a GREAT job with his dog. It was pointed out that Steve is definitely un-trainable.
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