PETA Statement: Captive Dolphins Need Better Federal Protection—as Do Other Animals

For Immediate Release:
February 3, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA Foundation Deputy Director Brittany Peet released the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposal to strengthen federal animal-welfare regulations pertaining to dolphins:

Updated animal-welfare regulations for dolphins are long overdue, as the current guidelines are decades old. Until these far-ranging, intelligent animals are returned to the ocean, where they belong, the least we owe them is a measure of relief. But regulations will do nothing if federal authorities don’t enforce them, and PETA cautions that the dolphins suffering in cramped tanks may be as neglected as the bears who pace back and forth in tiny concrete pits because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed to act, just as it has failed to protect exotic birds still languishing in deplorable roadside zoos.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has more information about its efforts to call on the USDA to protect birds and bears available on its website (here and here).