Animal Intelligence.

I’ve long felt uneasy about zoos. While I believe there is some value in giving wild animals sanctuary, to study them and to care for them (especially when they cannot safely be released into the wild), and to educate the general population, in reality many zoos are crowded, noisy places with too-small enclosures that cannot help but be distressing environments for animals that should be roaming free. I suspect this is a conflict many people who love animals feel, including the zookeepers. We are torn between excitement and awe at seeing a majestic, wild animal close up and sorrow that we have taken them out of their world against their will, instead of encountering them in their natural habitat. Ultimately, zoos serve humans rather than animals, and it is heartbreaking to witness animals clearly suffering when surrounded by human noise and activity.

Somehow, my unease hasn’t prevented me from taking my son to visit zoos though. It just seems the thing to do when you’re a busy parent in the middle of the holidays, desperate for an activity that will keep a child occupied for a full day. Of course, some zoos are better than others. But I’m not excusing my hypocrisy here. I admit that my desire for some parental respite has led me to ignore or minimise my own concerns about animal welfare. Now my son is at an age where perhaps I can begin to have some honest conversations with him about this.

While on holiday in Majorca a couple of weeks ago, we visited a marine animal park as a family. Honestly when I booked it I didn’t give the welfare of the animals a lot of thought. I was simply looking for an activity that would get us out of the 40-degree heat for the day, and that one was not too expensive and happened to fit in with our schedule. (An hour each way on an air-conditioned coach was a bonus.) I figured it was more or less an aquarium, but I did cotton on that there were mammals too. Marineland has a number of bottlenose dolphins and admission to the dolphin show was included in our ticket price. I felt uneasy about the idea of keeping dolphins in captivity — I’ve seen Blackfish — but I naively assumed animal welfare standards must be enforced more strictly these days. I regret not doing my research.

Dolphins are incredible, intelligent animals, and seeing them up close was breathtaking. I thought the “show” would be an educational experience, where we would learn about dolphin behaviour and conservation. I was wrong. The show felt like a circus. There was extremely loud music from beginning to end, constant noise (especially as the announcers had to talk in both English and Spanish), and the dolphins performed tricks throughout. There was a lot of anthropomorphising — trainers hugging and kissing the creatures, behaving as if there was a mutual bond of love between them, and the dolphins were trained to wave their fins and tails to greet the audience. We were encouraged to applaud their tricks but, of course, dolphins do not understand the meaning of applause. The enclosure seemed too small considering dolphins swim vast distances in the ocean.

For an untrained outsider it’s impossible to know how distressing or not the dolphins found all this. You could argue that in captivity they at least have the guarantee of food and safety that they wouldn’t get in the wild, while training them to perform gives them the mental stimulation they need. But the experience at Marineland didn’t sit right with me, so much so that I’ve thought about it a lot since we returned from holiday. Even if it had been an educational experience, perhaps it is always wrong to keep dolphins in captivity where they are exposed to the public, with the desire to maximise tourist income taking precedence over animal welfare. I regret my decision and I wish I’d done my research beforehand.

If nothing else, the trip has helped me clarify my thoughts. This is not a choice I would make again.