Most people don’t want to see dolphins trapped in bathtubs! Consumer boycotts forced all of England’s marine mammal exhibits to close. Israel has prohibited the importation of dolphins for use in marine parks. Canada no longer allows beluga whales to be captured and exported. In Brazil, it’s illegal to use marine mammals for entertainment. Ditto, South Carolina. It’s time for the rest of the United States to let dolphins be free!

Where to start? By stopping VMSM’s planned dolphin prison!

What’s the Deal? Here Are the Facts:
•VMSM’s new tank will display six “nonreleasable” dolphins and several seals. “Nonreleasable” is simply industry-speak for dolphins purposely bred in captivity, not injured animals who cannot be returned to their ocean homes.

•The museum admits that it will breed dolphins. Translation: They’ll be creating even more “nonreleasable” animals for display—and profit!

Did You Know?
•In the ocean, orcas and dolphins may swim up to 100 miles a day. An orca in a marine park would have to swim around the edge of a typical tank more than 500 times just to cover 50 miles.

•Dolphins navigate by bouncing sonar waves off objects to judge their shape, density, distance, and location. In a tank, says Jacques Cousteau’s son, Jean-Michel, dolphins “are bombarded by a garble of their own vocalizations, which may in fact be acutely painful .... Their world becomes a maze of meaningless reverberations.”

•Captivity is stressful. Studies show that every time dolphins are hauled from one facility to another, they suffer the same degree of life-threatening stress as they would if being captured from the wild!

Let the city of Virginia Beach, where VMSM is located, know what you think of imprisoning dolphins in a tank!

Write letters, draw pictures, make posters—whatever you like—then send them to PETA’s Education Department, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510. We’ll make sure that city officials hear what you have to say.