This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

Disney made a splash by announcing the retirement of the dolphins at its Epcot theme park in Bay Lake, Florida. Even though Disney's decision to move away from human-dolphin interactions as entertainment is a good one, the dolphins are being moved to another marine park where they will continue to be exploited. Tell Disney to properly retire its dolphins by allowing them to be transferred to a proper seaside sanctuary!

The three Atlantic bottlenose male dolphins, Rainier, Calvin, and Malabar, who are part of Epcot's The Seas with Nemo and Friends attraction will be moved to Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park in late October. Disney claims to be “prioritizing the wellbeing of these sensitive marine mammals,” but the dolphins are merely being transferred to another facility to continue to be abused for profit.

In the wild dolphins would experience a dynamic world, traveling up to 60 miles per day in the open ocean, hunting and playing with the dozens of other dolphins in their pod. This is in stark contrast to their barren, stale, boring existence in captivity. Captive dolphins suffer tremendously with little mental stimulation, being put in tanks with strangers, and being forced to eat dead fish. Elevated aggression and frustration are extremely common in captive dolphins and they are sometimes even medicated with antidepressants.

Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park, like many marine parks, has captive dolphins forced to perform in dolphin shows and has dolphin encounter attractions where people interact with captive dolphins. These are not natural behaviors and the dolphins are kept hungry so that they will comply with orders and endure the forced interactions in the shows in order to be fed. This is not the future the Epcot dolphins deserve.

The dolphins at Epcot should be retired and allowed to live out their lives in a sanctuary where they can be in the ocean and be able to perform their natural behaviors, not performing for humans. Tell Disney to let its dolphins go to a sanctuary by calling, speaking out on social media, and sending our letter!

Letter to Decision Maker(s) for reference:

Subject: Move the Epcot Dolphins to a Sanctuary!

As someone who is concerned with animal welfare and one of over 250,000 In Defense of Animals supporters, I am writing to urge you to allow the dolphins at Epcot to be moved to a sanctuary. 

Disney claims to be “prioritizing the wellbeing of these sensitive marine mammals.” However, transferring the three dolphins to a marine park to be further abused and exploited is not prioritizing their wellbeing. 

In the wild, dolphins would experience a dynamic world, traveling up to 60 miles per day in the open ocean, while hunting and playing with the dozens of other dolphins in their pod. This is a stark contrast to the barren, stale, boring existence in captivity. Captive dolphins suffer tremendously with little mental stimulation, being put in tanks with strangers, and being forced to eat dead fish. Elevated aggression and frustration are extremely common in captive dolphins and Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park will be no different. This is not the future the Epcot dolphins deserve.

The Epcot dolphins should be retired to live out their lives in a sanctuary where they can be in the ocean and be able to perform their natural behaviors, not performing for humans. Please allow them to be moved to a sanctuary instead of a marine park.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,

Signed

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.