Called Kuru, the dolphin is a species known as a false killer whale, which can grow to up to 6m in length. A US tourist captured the moment on camera and the footage shows aquarium staff rushing to wrap Kuru in a mat before lifting it back into the water with a crane.
Other dolphins in the tank gather around the side where Kuru leapt out. Dolphin activist Ric O'Barry, said the case highlighted how animals suffered in captivity.
"The habitat of that false killer whale is so unnatural it leapt out in desperation. It wanted to end it. Why does a person jump out of a building."
Part 2. Part 3.
Keeping dolphins in concrete tanks was cruel because it deprived them of their sensory skills and bombarded them with strange sounds, he said. But the aquarium's dolphin manager Hideshu Teruya denied Kuru was trying to escape.
"It was playing around and jumped out by accident from the momentum," he said. The dolphin had suffered some minor scratches and bruises but was otherwise unharmed by the incident, he said.
8 comments:
I'm feeling too lazy at the moment to start thinking about this incident very deeply, but comparing this dolphin to people who consciously commit suicide is preposterous and immediately makes me dismiss anything else activist O'Barry has to say.
i'd love to get some cages here at home. lock in some humans, people who lock up animals "just for the fun of it"
poor animals
So you think cetaceans just beach themselves by accident? They're too smart for that.
But the aquarium's dolphin manager Hideshu Teruya denied Kuru was trying to escape.
"It was playing around and jumped out by accident from the momentum," he said.
I wouldn't expect anyone in Japan's dolphin captivity industry to care one whit about an animal's wishes. They eat the poor things, after all.
<span>The first reaction of the woman: Oh my god! How gruesome!
Her boyfriend: This is critical.
She: I agree. Why are they doing like that (when they are about to support the dolphin).
Later: Look, all the others are coming to watch!
I wounder what that dolphin thought. Fleeing is a natural action. Hard to say if the dolphin wanted to escape from captivity for good. </span>
You have made the two dumbest posts that ive read this day. Congratulations.
Well thanks. Care to elaborate?
There actually is an observed behavior where whales and dolphins will actually just stop breathing - for them, breathing is a totally conscious act, so they might not be drowning, but they are capable of killing themselves that way. As for why you don't see drowned dolphins and whales... well, they drown themselves at sea. Their bodies sink and are eaten, as is the natural process of the ocean. I'm not saying they DO, but I do believe that these animals are intelligent enough to think abstractly and have self awareness, and at that point, why wouldn't they be capable of suicide? Also, if it was just playing, why would it thrust itself out over what was assuredly and uncomfortable thin plastic barrier not once, but twice? Even if it didn't mean to kill itself, don't tell me it didn't realize exactly what it was doing.
Idiot.
Dear Idiot,
You believe a dolphin jumping out of its tank is comparable to a person jumping out of a building. I disagree. While I am not saying these animals are stupid, I have no reason to think they are anywhere near the level of the sapience of our species.
But if you presume, as you do that a dolphin suicide is the same as a human suicide, why would a dolphin decide to kill itself in the most painful possible way if it could simply just stop breathing instead? Was it a protest? Masochism? A performance, some sort of macabre art? A religious act? Of course I'm not saying it WAS, but I can speculate as if I had facts.
Anyway, I'm not even rejecting the possibility of a dolphin commiting suicide. My only objection is to the equal sign drawn between a human ending their life and a dolphin possibly appearing to try to end its. It cheapens the tragedy of the former. Call me speciest if you want, I don't care.
Yours truly
Insolitus
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